History

The British love the National Health Service. In early 2020, people emerged from their homes every Thursday evening to applaud healthcare workers and[……]

‘To drink drunk is an ordinary matter with them every day in the week’, said Giles Fletcher, ambassador to Russia, in 1588. His observation echoed an[……]

Lawrence du Garde Peach’s Ladybird book on Charles II. Alamy.
The playwright Lawrence du Garde Peach (1890-1974) is remembered today as the author of[……]

Toussaint Louverture, 19th-century engraving. Alamy.
In June 1846, 13 years after slavery in the British Empire had been outlawed, and just at the mo[……]

Brothers in arms?: a British soldier lights a cigarette for a Dyak colleague, Malaya, 1950 © Haywood Magee/Getty Images.
On 28 April 1952 a photograp[……]

A public washing ground. English 17th-century engraving. Alamy.
Could something as mundane as a shirt ever be the motive for murder? What if clothing[……]

‘Children’s Christmas Dinner At Sea’, illustration by G. Durand from The Graphic, 1889.
Caroline Pereira was a frequent business traveller. For a wom[……]

Papyrus containing the diary of Merer from day 19 to 25 (read right to left) at the Wadi al-Jarf exhibition, Cairo Museum, 2016.
In 2013 archaeologis[……]

‘Kolkhoz’ [collective farm] women working in a field, 1930s © Hulton Getty Images.
The Soviet project claimed to have dismantled the causes of oppres[……]

Boy Scouts in Barnet, 1930. Hulton Getty Images.
The doors of the Queen’s Hall, London, opened at 7.15pm on 16 April 1930. The evening featured a per[……]