The latest update to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography—published on Thursday 7 January 2016—adds biographies of 222 modern Britons who died in the year 2012.
The update includes the historian and political commentator, Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012), whose ODNB biography is written by Professor Martin Jacques. The update is accompanied by a short film in which Martin discusses Hobsbawm’s life and work with the Oxford DNB’s general editor, Professor Sir David Cannadine. A longer audio version of the full discussion is available via SoundCloud.
Click to see the short interview
Other notable figures, now added to the Oxford DNB, include war correspondent Marie Colvin (1956-2012) who was killed in Syria; editor of the Times, William Rees-Mogg (1928-2012); photojournalist Eve Arnold (1912-2012), the astronomers Sir Patrick Moore (1923-2012) and Sir Bernard Lovell (1913-2012); hairdresser Vidal Sassoon (1928-2012); Jim Marshall (1923-2012), inventor of the Marshall amp; Allan Horsfall (1927-2012), pioneer of gay rights in Britain; Sir Rex Hunt (1926-2012), governor of the Falkland Islands during the 1982 conflict, and Gerry Anderson (1929-2012), animator and creator of the children’s puppet series, Thunderbirds.
Highlights from the Oxford DNB’s January 2016 update
Dr Philip Carter
Senior Research and Publication Editor,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
