The election of Barack Obama was greeted with enthusiasm at home and abroad. Has his administration seen a reverse of the anti-Americanism of the Bush years? Simon Jenkins is well known for his columns in the Guardian and the Evening Standard.

Stephen Hebron discusses his new book, exploring what Keats's letters and poems reveal about him and his creative process. Interviewed by Ellie Russell. Published by British Library Publishing, £25.00.

Beowulf is the greatest Anglo-Saxon epic, a tale of warriors, monsters and dragons.

The poem has inspired films and musicals, graphic novels and computer games.

All this is owed to the unique manuscript, which was nearly destroyed by fire in the 18th century. Julian Harrison, Curator of Medieval Manuscripts, explains.

Producers John and Lisel Gale are interviewed by Rebecca Novell, and Iain Mackintosh, who founded Oxford's Prospect Theatre Company,

talks with Dr Alec Patton. Introduced by Jamie Andrews, Head of Modern Literary Manuscripts. From the 2009 Theatre Archive Project live event. Recorded on 14 September 2009

In 1987, Ken Livingstone, former head of the recently abolished Greater London Council (GLC), discussed the need to reform the political system at the Institute of Contemporary Arts as part of the ongoing ICA Talks series.

Two decades on, we invited Ken in to discuss how the political landscape has changed in the intervening years - and how it hasn’t.

Alison Weir is one of Britain's best-loved and most-read historians.

Her works include The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Henry VIII: King and Court and Mary, Queen of Scots.

Her next book will be a detailed account of the dramatic and controversial imprisonment and execution of Anne Boleyn. In this intriguing talk, she makes a compelling case that Anne went to her death an innocent, wronged woman.

Cheryl Tipp, curator of Wildlife for the British Library Sound Archive,

discusses the British Mammals CD which contains 26 recordings of a variety of mammals found across the British Isles.

Recordings include the calls of species such as the Red Deer, Red Squirrel and Grey Seal that are celebrated features of the British landscape.

It also features the sounds of our more secretive mammals such as the Otter, Yellow-necked Mouse and Pine Marten.

In the third and final lecture of this enthralling series David Starkey examines the paradox of Henry's life. For the divorce from Katherine of Aragon and break from Rome,

which wrecked his character, also laid the foundations for the great achievements of his reign. Recorded on 30 June 2009.

Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world. Handwritten over 1600 years ago,

the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament.

Dr Juan Garcés of the British Library talks to Amy Myshrall, one of the team who helped create the digitised Codex Sinaiticus.

Geoff Dyer - novelist, writer, and author of Ways of Telling: the Work of John Berger - talks to Head of Modern Literary Manuscripts Jamie Andrews, on the eve of Berger's donation of his archive to the Library.