The Oxford University Press has released a new update of its Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), adding over 200 famous men and women who had an impact on British history, culture and the country’s global image.
The latest version of the dictionary was published on 7 January and includes entries for the likes of Eric Hobsbawm, Patrick Moore, Vidal Sassoon and many of their contemporaries. ODNB now runs to 60 volumes, covering figures who died through 2012
In addition to the 59,657 biographies already collected in the previous instalments, this edition features a number of detailed articles on the lives of people who died in or before 2012.
Among the newly-added figures to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography can be found Allan Hors
fall (1927-2012), who fought for the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender people and their legal recognition.
Born in 1956, American journalist Marie Colvin also
 stars in the extended 
list, rewarding her full commitment to wartime reporting for the Sunday Times, including coverage of the ‘Arab Spring’, as she was killed in Homs four years ago while working on the Syrian civil war.
Cultural figures including Thunderbirds director and animator Gerry Anderson (1929-2012) have also made the new list.
Alongside Anderson goes Colin Marshall, responsible for the rapid commercial evolution of British Airways in the 1980s and the origin of the slogan, ‘The world’s favourite airline’.
Sportsmen Josh Gifford and Tony Greig, as well as the inventor of the Marshall amplifier (who gave his name to his creation), are all included in the dictionary’s update.
This update of ODNB also includes some contributors, like Martin Jacques, who worked on Eric Hobsbawm’s biography, and Trevor MacDonald, who worked on that of news broadcaster Alastair Burnet.
