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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Reading
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(135,000 in 1991) Administrative centre of Berkshire, on the river Kennet. There are only fragmentary ruins of the great *Benedictine abbey, founded in 1121, which made Reading a place of importance in the Middle Ages. In more recent centuries it has been famous above all for the manufacture of biscuits. The museum, in a redbrick building of the late 19C, has the finds from the nearby Roman site of *Silchester. Oscar *Wilde served most of his sentence (1895–7) in the prison at Reading.
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