Editing Brief Lives (section)

==Afterlife==
Aubrey's ''Brief Lives'' has been loved for generations for its colourful [[gossip]]y tone and for the glimpses it provides of the unofficial sides of its subjects. Aubrey's use of informants and his eye for the unusual provides much more vivid pictures than a biography based on documents could. He is frank but never malicious.

The ''Brief Lives'' includes biographies of such figures as [[Francis Bacon]], [[Robert Boyle]], [[Thomas Browne]], [[John Dee (mathematician)|John Dee]], [[Sir Walter Raleigh]], [[Edmund Halley]], [[Ben Jonson]], [[Thomas Hobbes]], [[John Ogilby]], [[William Petty]] and [[William Shakespeare]]. There have been many modern editions.

[[Patrick Garland]] wrote and directed a play ''[[Brief Lives (play)|Brief Lives]]'' based on Aubrey's work; featuring [[Roy Dotrice]] as Aubrey. The production has been performed worldwide since 1969.{{sfn|Walker|2008}}

In 2008, ''Aubrey's Brief Lives'' was a five-part drama serial on [[BBC Radio 4]]. Writer [[Nick Warburton]] intertwined some of Aubrey's biographical sketches with the story of the turbulent friendship between Aubrey and Wood. [[Abigail le Fleming]] produced and directed.{{sfn|Reynolds|2008}}