For those interested in writers' lives (and particularly their tribulations), the Royal Literary Fund has now made available an index covering over 3,600 case files for authors who first applied between 1790 and 1939, based on my catalogue for the British Library: www.rlfarchive.org.uk.

This can be used to find the case file numbers necessary to request materials at the BL while the manuscripts catalogue remains down (although there are significant RLF materials it doesn't cover, such as the annual reports and anniversary dinner papers).