Flora Johnston found a remarkable story of spies and secrecy behind the front of the British passport office in Berlin in the 1930s while researching her family history. There, the chief officer, Frank Foley, ran a dangerous operation to help Jews and others escape the Nazis. She tells Historia how it helped … Continue Reading
Features
Cragside, the house that inspired a novel
Cragside is a Victorian marvel, built to combine Mock Tudor with modern engineering. Kate Lumsden explains how this unusual house, at the … Continue Reading
The Florence flood of 1966
Sixty years ago this month, the River Arno burst its banks and catastrophically flooded Florence. Angela M Sims recalls the events of 4 November, … Continue Reading
The Hollywood Blacklist
Amanda Cockrell looks at the history of accusations of communism as a political attack, particularly as they affected screenwriters in the US … Continue Reading
Hereward the Wake, man and myth
Who was Hereward the Wake? The author and historian Charles Moseley, whose book about the Fenland rebel has just been published, says the records … Continue Reading
Interviews
Historia interview: Claire Hobson
On 29 May, Oak Apple Day, it'll be 396 years from Charles II's birth in 1630 and 366 since his restoration. To mark the occasion, Historia spoke to Claire Hobson, whose biography charts those 30 turbulent years that … Continue Reading
Historia interview: Carolyn O’Brien
Carolyn O’Brien’s new novel Rose & Renzo is set in 1930s Manchester and is deeply entwined with the radical politics of the time, the backdrop to a passionate coming-of-age story. Carolyn O’Brien talks to fellow … Continue Reading
Reviews
Review: Wuthering Heights – the film – and Catherine by Essie Fox
February, 2026 has given us the full Bronte with two retellings of Wuthering Heights. Kate Griffin, the author of several Gothic novels and lover of films set in the Victorian era, is the ideal person to review both … Continue Reading
Review: Samurai at the British Museum
Lesley Downer, author of The Shortest History of Japan, visits the Samurai exhibition at the British Museum and discovers that it's "an exhibition of treasures" which show that the samurai were patrons of the arts … Continue Reading