CATEGORIES

The Victorians' cocaine habit

In the 19th century, a magic new drug took the medical community by storm, riding a wave of scientific endeavour.

Tower of light and dark

The gold-tipped monument that towers above Bath is an architectural jewel and a visceral reminder of the evils of slavery. PAUL BLOOMFIELD visits the newly restored haven built by the wealthy outcast William Beckford

How Britain found its frequency

When radios first appeared in British homes in the early 20th century, one thing soon became clear: domestic life would never be the same again. Beaty Rubens tracks Britons' reaction to this extraordinary new technology via seven cartoons

There are only a handful of survivors left who can say what happened

I WAS INTERVIEWING AN ALMOST 98-YEAR-OLD man about his memories of the Second World War this week.

THE KING LOST KINGDOM

Battered by the Vikings, outshone by King Alfred, Mercia has long been painted as the also-ran of the Anglo-Saxon world. Yet, writes Max Adams, this mighty Midlands kingdom was at the very heart of the emergence of England

Donald Trump has retaken the US presidency, repeating his vow to 'Make America Great Again'. But he's not the first to wield such a slogan. Back in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan stood for election with the same promise.Did he deliver?

Donald Trump's recurring battle cry \"Make America Great Again!\"- taps into a powerful sense among many Americans that life was better in the old days.

"In times of political volatility, it's more vital than ever that we tell women's stories"

What impact has recent instability around the world had on the study of women’s history? Does our desire for strong female role models risk erasing complexity? And whose lives are still overlooked? Ahead of Women’s History Month, ELLIE CAWTHORNE spoke to three historians about the state of the discipline

Five shocking tales from Britain's royal palaces

Royal residences have been a hotbed of drama, violence and intrigue down the centuries, as Kate Williams reveals

Why, the villagers wondered, were they completely green?

The story of the otherworldly children of Woolpit has long been treated as folklore - but, as John Clark explains, the tale may not be as fanciful as it seems

We are witnessing the biggest gathering of people in world history

I'M SURE, LIKE ME, READERS HAVE BEEN BOTH gripped and saddened this last month by the pictures of India's Kumbh Mela, the biggest pilgrimage in the world.

The Mongols conquer China

The Song dynasty meets a watery end at the battle of Yamen

You could say that Suetonius is the godfather of the murderous dynastic drama

Suetonius's Lives of the Caesars, a key source for the early Roman emperors, has just been translated anew by historian Tom Holland. He reveals what insights it yields into these titans of ancient history

Viking mussels

ELEANOR BARNETT digs into archaeological research to recreate a Viking-cum-AngloSaxon seafood dish from medieval York

Fingers, frog's and fairies

Fortune telling was all the rage in the 16th and 17th centuries, and practitioners would stop at nothing to tap in to the supernatural. Martha McGill tells a story of Highland seers, tarot cards and encounters with the spirit world

Nothing matches being with Alexander the Great on foot in the Hindu Kush

AT OUR LITTLE FILM COMPANY, MAYA VISION, we recently took the decision to digitise all of the rushes of our key films so that we could dispose of hundreds of boxes of tapes that had been kept in storage, throwing out stuff we thought we would never need again.

Library of the dead

Highgate Cemetery, created as a fashionable resting place for wealthy Victorian dead, is a veritable who's who of London's great and good. PETER ROSS roams the avenues of this most atmospheric necropolis

Slavery, exploitation and racism. These tragedies have long dominated histories of Africa. But there's another way to tell this story. And it's one that puts Africans right at the centre of their continent's extraordinarily rich and vibrant past

An 1414, in the Chinese city of Nanjing, a giraffe caused a stir. Amid a crowd of shocked, noble spectators, an official, leading the creature via a rope tied round its face, presented it to China's Yongle emperor. His officials said it was a qilin - an auspicious unicorn - which his sage governance had made appear.

England's forgotten hero

When the Hundred Years' War was reaching a climax, one man was fighting tenaciously to secure the English claim to the French crown. So why, asks Joanna Arman, is Henry V's formidable brother, John, Duke of Bedford, not better known?

HENRY III AND THE MAGNA CARTA THAT MATTERED

King John's sealing of a charter at Runnymede in 1215 is one of the most feted moments of the Middle Ages. Yet, writes David Carpenter, it was the charter issued by his son 10 years later that became fundamental to England's history

Gutenberg publishes a pioneering new book

‘The printing press triggers an information revolution

How empire ruptured rural Britain

We know that enslaved Africans and their descendants suffered in the distant colonies of empire. But, as Corinne Fowler explains, the colonial system also had dire impacts on people in the countryside of the 'motherland'

"I FELT VERY ALONE IN A WORLD GONE HORRIBLY MAD"

It was a moment of possibilities, dislocation and dread. Dan Todman tells the story of the 1.5 million urban Britons evacuated to the countryside at the start of the Second World War

A modern icon

IVWWAN MORGAN lauds an insightful and clear-eyed examination of a leader blessed with charisma and quality but also marred by personal flaws

Shipwrecks on Scilly

Beneath the clear waters of the Isles of Scilly lurk treacherous rocks on which more than 1,000 ships have foundered. CLARE HARGREAVES discovers their stories

Medieval sambocade

ELEANOR BARNETT recreates an early cheesecake - a dish with surprisingly long roots stretching back well over two millennia

Greek drama

LLOYD LLEWELLYN-JONES is swept along by an engaging exploration of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt in the final centuries before Rome conquered this ancient land

Unravelling the enigma

JOSEPH ELLIS is impressed by a detailed, colourful and insightful biography of George Villiers, a Stuart royal favourite who made powerful enemies

The Elusive Pimpernel

Some suffragettes marched with banners, or printed and distributed propaganda pamphlets. Others took more direct action. DIANE ATKINSON tells the story of one activist who employed arson to spark awareness of the burning issue of women’s suffrage

A HILL TO DIE ON

In early 1944, the Allied advance in Italy was brought to a halt at a rocky outcrop called Monte Cassino. And at the heart of the bloodbath that followed, writes James Holland, was flawed leadership

How to build a radical

How to build a radical 6 8 The experiences that shaped Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder plot co-conspirators into violent extremists seem all too familiar today. Lucy Worsley tells a story of religious clashes, state-sanctioned torture and comrades-in-arms willing to die for the cause