A number of very useful online databases, text collections and reference materials are now available to Open University students through The Open University Library. Follow these links for online collections for literature in English and online collections for creative writing.
Many Literature courses have their own ROUTES web pages (collections of relevant links selected by the course teams and Library staff). Follow this link for further details.
The Internet for English is an online tutorial about using the Internet for univerity study and research.
Intute: English Studies is a large humanities portal which gathers together the best web resources for your subject.
This 3 part BBC series tells the story of the British novel in the 20th century told by those who know it best – the authors themselves. Plundering the BBC archive, In Their Own Words: British Novelists reveals Britain’s greatest novelists talking candidly about their life and work. You can find out more about the background and view related material on the In Their Own Words website.
An online interactive tool helps you discover the connections between 20th-century authors. This joins the dots of the literary landscape of 20th-century Britain to explore the connections between authors. It highlights the love and the loathing they felt for each other, their shared genres and backgrounds and the passions and the occupations that drew them together - 3,500 connections between just 60 authors!
Why not download a copy of the free illustrated booklet In their Own Words: Six Writers and Their Readers, [PDF file, 1MB], which features some of the fascinating writers that can be explored on OU English modules.
These often include useful features about new books, essays about authors etc.