"The Penguin Guide to Literature in English: Britain and Ireland" provides an illustrated introduction to the work of the most important writers and their historical background from the year 600 to the end of the 20th century. 

It covers the works of novelists, dramatists, and poets from 

• Chaucer to Shakespeare 
• Austen to Dickens 
• James Joyce to Seamus Heaney 

right through to modern-day authors such as 

• Jeanette Winterson 
• Roddy Doyle
• Irvine Welsh. 

Written specifically for non-native speakers of English, it offers many illustrations and literary extracts as well as glossaries of literary and cultural terms, a writer index, and a table showing the most important historical and literary events.