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 (with possible additions):
Lewis Binford; Richard Britnell; William Brock; Nicholas Brooks; Charles E. B. Cranfield; James Durbin; Sheppard Frere; Robert Gruffydd; Peter Hall; Anthony Hobson; Maurice Keen; Frank Kermode; Piers Mackesy; Isabel de Madariaga; Ernest Nicholson; John Shepherdson; Jon Stallworthy.