ALL 60 volumes of a newly-published national biography collection are now available at libraries across Worcestershire.

The county council's library service has bought four complete copies of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, each containing 50,000 specially written biographies of remarkable British people.

The collection has taken 12 years to update since its last publication and covers individuals from the 4th Century BC to the year 2000.

Ten thousand people contributed to the 60 million-word resource including Worcestershire County Councillor Tom Bean, who wrote entries for traveller and writer John George Cayley (1826 to 1878), tea broker and politician George Moffatt (1806 to 1878) and Savile Morton (1811 to 1852) described as a "journalist and philanderer".

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is available at Worcester, Evesham, Kidderminster and Redditch with extra copies due for Malvern and Bromsgrove next year.