CATEGORIES

A Taste For Strange Meats And Husbands' Buttocks

From chewing coal to salivating over starch and shells, pregnant women in early modern England were consumed by a number of outlandish cravings. Jennifer Evans explores how doctors made sense of these bizarre – and sometimes dangerous – desires

Wonder of its age

Nestled in the Northumbrian hills, Cragside looms large through the trees. JULIAN HUMPHRYS explores the extraordinary Victorian mansion and gardens which were masterminded by an equally extraordinary engineer

RICHARD THE RADICAL

For centuries Richard III has been cast as a diabolical despot who would stop at nothing in pursuit of power. But, argues Matt Lewis, in reality, Richard was a champion of the common man – and it was this that ultimately led to his downfall

Life After Death

Laurence Rees recommends a moving and often surprising examination of the difficulties faced by children rebuilding their lives after surviving the Holocaust

Spanish Civil War - Fighters Against Fascism

Alejandro Quiroga recommends a book that tells the stories of international soldiers who signed up to fight in the Spanish Civil War, and questions what motivated them

We Should Keep Rewriting History: Our ‘Island Story' Is Not Set In Stone

I had made up my mind not to talk about the ‘Life in the UK’ British history test. Earlier this summer, 181 historians and authors had their say about its factual inaccuracies; about the lack of social history; the omission of black history; the downplaying of Britain’s role in the slave trade. But this, in a real sense, represents the ‘official’ narrative of our history. When the prime minister said, in response to the fall of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol, “we cannot pretend to have a different history”, we have to assume that this is what he means.

How Covid-19 Is Forcing Universities To Change

Covid-19 has compelled history departments in UK universities to radically alter their teaching methods. Richard Toye explores the challenges that online teaching poses and how they can be overcome

“So many people knew their parents had gone through the Holocaust and grew up with this shadow of trauma”

Barrister and TV presenter ROBERT RINDER tells us about his two-part documentary dealing with the legacy of the Holocaust and its impact on his family – and why it’s vital to talk about the trauma

ROMAN - Murder most foul

MICHAEL SCOTT considers a grisly new title that contains a blood-soaked collection of Roman murder tales

Paraguay's child-soldiers fought with wooden sticks, painted as muskets

Outside of South America – where it remains an open wound – the War of the Triple Alliance is largely forgotten. It lasted from 1864 to 1870 and pitted

ANNE BOLEYN'S FINAL BATTLE

Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife, famously lost her head at her husband’s behest. Tracy Borman, the presenter of a new TV series on Anne’s fall from grace, delves into the queen's dramatic final days

Churchill ‘considered nuclear attack' on the USSR

The statesman was prepared to deploy extreme measures against the forces of communism, new research reveals.

A life lived to the full

DIANE ATKINSON salutes an impressive new biography charting the action-packed life of Sylvia Pankhurst, from suffragette hunger strikes to secret missions to revolutionary Russia

Lost and found

RICHARD SUGG delves into the murky depths of Britain’s social history with a book that dredges up the hidden stories of everything we have chucked away over the last 500 years

Who's holding the baby?

Since the turn of the 20th century, Britain’s working mothers have been faced with the ultimate juggling act: holding down a job while raising a family. Helen McCarthy traces women’s attempts to solve the childcare conundrum

Under the shadow

DAVID LAVEN considers an important, but disappointing, new survey of Fascist Italy at war, from the invasion of Ethiopia to the alliance with Nazi Germany

MY HISTORY HERO: Beatrice shilling 1909–90

Cathy Newman, journalist and broadcaster, chooses

Garibaldi was feted by our Victorian ancestors in an unprecedented way

DAVID OLUSOGA explores lesser-known stories from our past

Family fortunes

MARK CORNWALL recommends a masterful account of a dynasty that dominated Europe for more than four centuries and spread its influence across the globe

THE FIGHT TO THE END... AND BEYOND

As Britons celebrated VE Day, German troops were engaged in pitiless clashes on the Dutch island of texel against rebel fighters-from Georgia, Eric Lee tells the story of the final battle of Europe's second World War

The 14th Century… When Things Weren't What They Used To Be

Hannah Skoda explores how late medieval Europe saw an upsurge in misty-eyed yearning for the ‘good old days’

Politicians cherry pick from history, if they take much notice of it at all

Why do so many politicians write history books? Does a knowledge of the past help with the challenges of today? And should MPs pay more attention to history? Our reviews editor, Matt Elton, headed to Westminster to ask a panel of history-loving politicians.

A Surgeon With A Secret

As part of our occasional series profiling remarkable yet unheralded characters from history,  introduces Dr James Barry, the medical pioneer and eminent surgeon to aristocracy, who was forced to conceal a fundamental fact – that ‘he’ was in fact a ‘she’.

7 Ways To Say “I Love You”

In medieval Europe, young lovers used all manner of media to declare their passion for one another – from exquisite French songbooks to lowly pieces of cattle bone. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, Kimberley-Joy Knight introduces seven tokens of love from the Middle Ages

The Anglo - Saxons' Last Stand

The spirit of the Anglo-Saxons didn’t die at the battle of Hastings. William I faced years of resistance from a populace resentful of the Norman takeover. Marc Morris charts the defiant attempts to fight the conquerors

How should history remember Fidel Castro?

To many, he was a heroic champion of the disenfranchised; to others, a cruel tyrant. Following Fidel Castro’s death in November, we asked five historians to offer their verdicts on the Cuban leader’s life and legacy

Why Separatism Is Turning Up The Heat On European States

As the dust settles on Catalonia’s contested independence referendum, Dr Angel Smith offers a historical perspective on the region’s relationship with Madrid. Then Professor Martin Conway considers why Spain is far from the only European country to be convulsed by a separatist movement

“Our View Of Imperialism Needs Constant Interrogation”

“Our View Of Imperialism Needs Constant Interrogation”

Lettice Knollys Was A Favourite Of Elizabeth I… Then She Stole The Queen's Sweetheart

Nicola Tallis tells the story of a Tudor love triangle

The Great American U-Turn

In November 1916, US president Woodrow Wilson won re-election on an isolationist ticket. But just a few months later, he was issuing an impassioned call to arms. On the centenary of its entry into the First World War, Adam IP Smith traces America’s journey from neutrality to committed combatant.