For National Tea Day, Isabel Stilwell investigates the story of Catherine of Braganza, the queen who popularised Britain’s favourite drink. In 1777 a Frenchman came to Portugal as a spy, and to prove his point that the country was utterly under British influence, he wrote: “The Portuguese copy the English to such an extent, that […]
The Trojan Wars: Men or Myths?
Hilary Green explores the evidence of the real historical figures behind the Trojan Wars. Everyone knows the story of the Trojan War – don’t they? Achilles the great warrior, cunning Odysseus, the Trojan horse? That last, at least, has become common parlance. In recent years fewer and fewer people seemed to have heard it, but […]
The Women of the Knights Templar
Simon Turney explores the surprising history of the female Knights Templar. The Knights Templar
April Giveaway!
This month we’re giving away a bundle of new historical fiction from those generous folk at Bonnier Zaffre. One lucky winner
The Dark Legacy of Rome
“Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?” The classic comedy of Monty Python’s Life of Brian sums up the modern perception that the Roman empire was a force for good. But there are darker aspects […]
Review: Making Thunder Roar at the Brontë Parsonage Museum
Katherine Clements visits the new exhibition at
A Guide to Victorian Sex
What does Ballykissangel have in common with the dirtiest book of the Victorian era? This coincidence I stumbled upon while researching the counterculture of London’s swinging ’60s – that is, the 1860s. What happens offstage, behind the action, in the Victorian novels we know so well? I sought specifics: where did Dorian Gray go that […]
Lady Constance Lytton: The Suffering Suffragette
On the centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, when some British women were