The topical issues debated in this volume include the patenting of AIDS drugs, the future pensions crisis, Britain's universities, and Pan-Islam.There are studies of Shakespeare, Pope, Montaigne, Robert Graves, and William Faulkner. And there are lectures on the Inquisition, empires in history, and the journey towards spiritual fulfilment.

Volume 120 of the Proceedings of the British Academy contains 25 obituaries of recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy.

Eleven obituaries of recently deceased Fellows of the British Academy: Isaiah Berlin; Christopher Hill; Rodney Hilton; Keith Hopkins; Peter Laslett; Geoffrey Marshall; John Roskell; Isaac Schapera; Ben Segal; John Cyril Smith and Richard Wollheim.

The paradoxical logic of transparency and mediation Transparency is the metaphor of our time. Whether in government or corporate governance, finance, technology, health or the media – it is ubiquitous today, and there is hardly a current debate that does not call for more transparency. But what does this word actually stand for and what are the consequences for the life of individuals? Can knowledge from the arts, and its play of visibility and invisibility, tell us something about the paradoxical logics of transparency and mediation? This Obscure Thing Called Transparency gathers contributions by international experts who critically assess the promises and perils of transparency today.

Bloomfield and Dunn describe the varying roles which "poets" have historically filled within society, whether ancient, medieval, or pre-modern and identify the key functions of the poet figure. He (or sometimes she) supports the ruler and is in turn rewarded for a central service to the tribe; he exercises his authority by an apparently magical understanding of the past, present, and future; and, whenever called upon to perform an official rite, he knows how to wield the appropriate traditional, esoteric utterances. In order to illustrate the ways in which this kind of poetic function can be seen to have been exercised in early Irish literature, pre-modern Scottish Gaelic, early Welsh, early Norse and Old English the authors draw on a wide-range of texts. The study concludes with an examination of the implications of their findings for twentieth century readers exploring the utterances of poets remote from them in time or space.

A biography of a 20th-century Australian historian and an outstanding scholar in the humanities and social science fields, this thorough account highlights the accomplishments of W.K. Hancock. Compelling and informative, this chronicle features the scope of Hancock's work across three continents, including his mission to Uganda on behalf of the British government in 1954, his tracking of British mobilizations during World War II, and his founding of the Australian National University. Illuminating an extraordinary life and career, this examination celebrates the author of Australia.