Providing details of over 30,000 lives, the original Dictionary of National Biography was published between 1885 and 1900. This century has seen the addition of over 6,500 further names in Supplements taking the work up to 1985. This wealth of information is contained in shortened versions within the three volumes of the new Concise DNB. Covering British history from the first century AD Roman times to the mid-1980s, the Concise DNB recalls the lives of men and women from all walks of life, including many from the Empire and the Commonwealth. Previous editions of the Concise DNB extended only up to 1970. The inclusion of biographies of those who died between 1971 and 1985 brings the work up to date and the rearrangement of material means that the entire Concise DNB is available in a single chronological sequence for the first time. Providing the essential facts of each person's life in an easy-to-use form, this new edition also includes corrections to a number of entries and an expanded system of cross-references.