Ask the author: Yens Wahlgren on constructed languages
We spoke to Yens Wahlgren, author of The Universal Translator, about his love for constructed languages. You describe yourself as a xenosociolinguist, could you tell us what that means? Well, it’s a...
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Greenham Common Peace Camp in pictures
In 1981, a group of women marched from Cardiff to Greenham Common to protest American nuclear missiles on British soil. Greenham Common Peace Camp lasted for 19 years in one of the most successful...
View ArticleSex & Drugs and Rock & Roll: The music behind ‘The Microdot Gang’
Author of ‘The Microdot Gang’ James Wyllie, has put together the ultimate accompanying playlist to listen to while you read. An eclectic blend of rebellious punk, heavy acid rock, groovy blues, and...
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10 LGBTQ+ history icons you may not have heard of
June marks the beginning of Pride month. A month-long celebration and recognition of the LGBTQIA+ community, the history of gay rights and relevant civil rights movements. To commemorate this, we’re...
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How a story of Ethiopian plunder started in a Scottish cupboard
My book was born on a cold winter afternoon when a train pulled into Edinburgh’s Waverley Station. Out walked a group of black-robed priests, led by the archbishop of the ancient Ethiopian city of...
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The Butcher of the Balkans: Andrija Artuković
Fate called Andrija Artuković out of exile, back to his homeland. It was time to start building the Croatia that he’d been fighting for his entire adult life. At the age of 41, Artuković was assigned...
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Wealth, poverty, and childbirth in Victorian Britain
What was it like to give birth in Victorian Britain? Much depended, of course, on individual circumstances: health, wealth, social – including marital – status, and access to medical care. For the...
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Daisy Hopkins: The prostitute who fought against being imprisoned by...
Cambridge University is internationally renowned for its ancient colleges. It is lauded for its educational excellence. But in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, infamy blighted its hallowed...
View ArticleVanity Fair and trailblazing on Savile Row
One day, we got a phone call from Vanity Fair saying the photographer Michael Roberts would like to shoot us on Savile Row. Michael was something of a trailblazer himself. Only a couple of years...
View ArticleAsk the Author: Kristofer Allerfeldt on the Ku Klux Klan – An American history
Author Kristofer Allerfeldt is a professor of US history at the University of Exeter. He has written articles, both popular and academic; and lectured in Europe, the UK and the US. He has also...
View ArticleAntisemitism
The twenty-first century bears witness to the continuing hostility that has been expressed towards the Jewish people. Why is it that Jews have been so bitterly hated? The aim of Antisemitism is to...
View ArticleA tale of two court cases
The thought arrived as I was hovering inside a crowded coffee shop directly opposite the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. Tables and bars pulsed with suited, brief cased, device-bashing...
View ArticleThe soundtrack to ‘Queens of Bohemia’
Introduction – G. Puccini, “Quando m’en vo'” La Boheme for Cello & Piano DARREN COFFIELD: Bohemian was a term used for those who lived unconventional lives, when the first Romani Gypsies appeared...
View ArticleCats in the Roman world: The big and the small of it
Feles: a cat, a mouser, but also a thief. The eyes of nocturnal animals like cats gleam and shine in the dark. Pliny, Natural History IX.55 Excavated cat bones and cat images on vases and coins are...
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Behind Mabel’s War: Beyond the Blitz
All wars devastate the lives of ordinary people. Death and glory linger on the battlefields while many millions at home suffer the pain of fear, anxiety and dread. As a war reporter, I have witnessed a...
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Eighty-five years ago, the outbreak of the Second World War was confirmed....
“Strangely I wasn’t scared, I probably should have been, but I was eighteen years old at the time and because we were half-expecting war to be announced I remember feeling quite calm.”This is Flight...
View ArticleThe Dark Side of Bohemia
By the beginning of the 20th century, a new generation of women had begun to turn the idea of Victorian respectability on its head. Not for them the conventional, stultifying lives of their forebears....
View ArticleThe meaning of ‘spice’
There is a need for definition, as spices have meant different things in different periods of history. ‘Spice’ is not a botanical term, but we can use botanical words to describe them.Today we might...
View ArticleStories about the starry night sky
The stars are our common heritage in the night sky, we are influenced by the portion of it that we see, and our stories create links between us as we realise our similarities and differences.When you...
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