George Eliot was born Mary Ann Evans in 1819. Her father was the land agent of Arbury Hall in Warwickshire, in the library of which Eliot embarked upon a brilliant self-education. She moved to London in 1850 and shone in its literary circles.

It was, however, her novels of English rural life that brought her fame, starting with Adam Bede, published under her new pen name in 1859, and reaching a zenith with Middlemarch in 1871. It is indicative of the respect and love that she inspired in her most devoted readers that Queen Victoria was one of them. She died in 1880.

Michael Fry was educated at Oxford and Hamburg. He has been a visiting fellow at Strathclyde and Brown universities, and held other international fellowships.

His books include Patronage and Principle, The Dundas Despotism and The Scottish Empire. A popular history, How the Scots Made America, was recently published in New York.

He has also written numerous articles and pamphlets on modern Scottish history. He has contributed to most major newspapers and has been a weekly columnist for The Scotsman, The Herald and The Sunday Times. He lives in Edinburgh.

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and became the most popular novelist of the Victorian era.

A prolific writer, he published more than a dozen novels in his lifetime, including Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and Hard Times, most of which have been adapted many times over for radio, stage and screen.