The lives of the outstanding scholars celebrated in the volume often reveal unexpected personal and professional backgrounds. Taken together they build up a picture of the development of Britain's intellectual life.

The Fellows of the British Academy who are remembered in this volume are:

Colin Francois Lloyd Austin, Anne Barton, James Thompson Boulton, Rupert Leo Scott Bruce-Mitford, Richard Charles Cobb, Geoffrey de Bellaigue, John Davies Evans, Michael Johannes Frede, Peter Thomas Geach, Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm, Ian Gray Kidd, Mark Kinkead-Weekess, Wilfred George Lambert, Rachel Maxwell-Hislop, William Richard Mead, James Mellaart, Donald MacGillivray Nicol, Geoffrey Fillingham Nuttall, Roland Anthony Oliver, Alan Turner Peacock, Siegbert Salomon Prawer, Charles Thurston
Shaw, John Kinder Gowran Shearman, Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah, Irene Joan Thirsk.

Their scholarship ranged over the humanities and social science disciplines, including subjects as diverse as: medieval history, geography, the history of Africa, German, philosophy, French literature, sociology, art history and archaeology.