More than a million Indian soldiers fought for Britain in the first world war. As the British Library's collection of their letters home is put online, Daljit Nagra finds a valuable link to the history of his ancestors

The roots of TS Eliot's quintessentially English masterpiece, The Waste Land, lie far from home, in India, writes Sean O'Hagan

Chaucer's Canterbury, Emily Brontë's moors, Graham Greene's Brighton, Kureishi's suburbia … The British Library's new exhibition explores how literature has responded to the varying landscapes of these islands. By Blake Morrison

... well our dope-heads with gora love-styles

     put Rubs in a huff

like this Dope with his insides too coconut ...