"Tom" wrote in message
...
Reading a few websites has got me thinking that I may try to reprint some
old works that I own - if they have fallen into the public domain. A few
items in my own collection, I am hoping, would probably be eligible -
however I am not totally sure of UK copyright laws.

Current copyright law in the U.K - as in the rest of Europe - is that
copyright exists for seventy years after an author's death in respect of
previously published material. I understand that different provisions apply
to unpublished material.

For example, I am pretty sure that Hall's 'Life with the Esquimaux' is in
public domain - so that means it could be reprinted - without contacting
anyone? It is 1864 Original Publication

Original publication is no guide; it's the date of the author's death that
matters. However, unless the author wrote this book while he was a teenager
and lived to be a hundred or so, you're probably in the clear on this one
:-)

However - other things I am pretty sure that the following could not be
reprinted -

A Century of Excavation In Palestine - Religious Tracts Society - 1925 -
Author Died In 1950

Two of Graham Greene's early books, Rumour at Nightfall (1931) and The
Name
of Action (1930) - Author Died in 1991 - He never allowed the books to be
reprinted - so only first editions exist....

These could be reprinted with the permission of the relevant estates;
however, if they're not willing to have them reprinted, or ask more than
you're prepared to pay, you're out of luck.

Barbara Roden