The Columbia Companion to British History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

This source covers the Roman invasion of England to 1979.  It includes people, events, and political activities.  It is a good reference source written by expert scholars for a quick introduction to British history.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Covers the entire history of British literature from the seventh century to the present.  Includes biographies of nearly four hundred individual authors and a hundred topical essays with detailed analyses of significant themes, movements, genres, and institutions.  Illustrated.

Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland. Hammersmith, London: HarperCollins, 1994.

This source has broad coverage of Scotland and its history.  It is illustrated, with short entries, maps, and an index.

The Encyclopedia of Ireland. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.

This source contains short, signed entries, color illustrations, and maps.  Of note is its subject index and regular index.

The Encyclopedia of Ireland: An A-Z Guide to Its People, Places, History, and Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

This encyclopedia contains short entries, all primarily focused on current Ireland, but it does include some history.

The Oxford Companion to Irish History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

This Oxford companion covers everything from politics to popular culture, literature, women’s history from early history to current day.  It also includes illustrations, maps, and a subject index.

The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. Cardiff, Wales: University of Wales Press, 2008 (Boston, Mass.: Credo Reference, 2010.)

Covers many subjects, from Snowdonia to the pampas of Patagonia, the ancient bards to the super-modern Super Furry Animals, folk heroes to Welsh Olympians, and the men and women of Wales who have excelled in art, culture, commerce and politics.

• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History is international in scope and spanning all time periods of human history.  With more than 5,000 entries by an international group of eminent historians, this is the standard research tool on 1,100 years of Byzantine history. 
• Encyclopedia of world trade: from ancient times to the present records the historical and contemporary interaction of trade, commerce and culture complete with alphabetical headings, images and entries on people important to the study.
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World from 1750 to the present, providing special attention to social, economic, cultural and political topics applicable to the time.
• The Oxford Companion to World Exploration covers all aspects of global exploration from Antarctica to the North Pole, The Oxford Companion to World Exploration includes biographies, national expeditions, and navigational and marine sciences.
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History covers the history of seafaring, from ancient Egyptian shipbuilders to the nuclear submarines and supertankers of today.
• Pre-modern European economy: one thousand years (10th-19th centuries) is divided by sub-topics including: population, energy, agriculture, trade, industry, output and demand, and a chapter about pre-modern economies.
  
• Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation and Capitalism's Final Crisis
  How the capital-labor relation has evolved during the neoliberal era.
  more...

Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006

256 entries cover the period 1337-1453 and focus on the Hundred Years War between England and France. Entries are listed in alphabetical order and include further reading bibliographies.  Includes illustrations, maps, chronologies and a bibliography.

Tudor England: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 2001.

700 entries by top scholars in every major field combine new modes of archival research with a detailed Tudor chronology and appendix of biographical essays.

Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 1714-1837: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Pub, 1997.

This source includes not only England, but makes an effort to include Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.  It is organized alphabetically by entry, each of which includes bibliographies.  It includes illustrations and maps, as well as helpful front matter: table of main topics and articles, list of illustrations, and historical chronology.

Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Pub, 1988.

This source consists of scholarly, short, signed entries with bibliographies and cross references.  It covers people, broad topics (i.e., nonconformity), and movements.  It includes some illustrations and an index.

Victorian Culture and Society: The Essential Glossary. London: Arnold; New York: Distributed in the U.S. by Oxford University Press, 2003.

This glossary’s primary focus is on English literature, but it includes other aspects of society, i.e., history, economics, politics.  It is a valuable one-volume quick reference source.  It includes an index and bibliography; some entries have limited further reading recommendations.

Encyclopedia of Romanticism: Culture in Britain, 1780s-1830s. New York: Garland Pub, 1992.

This encyclopedia covers 1780s to the mid-1830s.  It is a cultural encyclopedia, focused on literary figures, movements, and historical actives. It includes signed entries, each followed by works consulted lists.

Encyclopedia of British Sport. Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 2000.

Covers the history of sports in Britain from the earliest times to the present.

The Oxford Companion to Black British History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

This Oxford companion is a valuable, specialized reference source.  Does not include living people.  While focus is primarily on Britons, it does include some non-Britons and events as they influenced black Britons.  This source consists of signed entries, with further reading for some entries, a selected bibliography at the end, an index, a thematic contents list, and a chronology.

The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Covers all aspects of Shakespeare.  Illustrated.

Brewer's Dictionary of Irish Phrase & Fable [electronic resource].  Boston: Credo Reference, 2014

Brewer’s Dictionary is a useful resource for finding the context to Irish phrases and fables, including numerous examples of Irish usage, in Irish and Hiberno-English as well as in English.