Volume: 57 Issue: 4

Michael Staunton considers how Thomas Becket, a controversial figure even in his own lifetime and ever since, was described by his earliest biographers.

For her latest book, historical biographer Sarah Gristwood has turned to the story of Elizabeth I and Leicester. Here she discusses some of the risks and pleasures of...

The Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III died on April  2nd, 1657.

John Horne asks why the heroic efforts of the two Irish divisions, the 16th (Irish) and the 36th (Ulster), in the bloody events on the Western Front in 1916, have...

Where would you put your vote for Britain’s best historic site for a day out? Somewhere famous and universally celebrated, like Hampton Court or Hadrian’s Wall? Or...

Richard Willis believes the government should pay attention to the history of teacher-training in its plans for school-based training schemes for graduates.

April letters from our readers on recent articles and

On the city’s 800th anniversary in 2007, and the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade, John Belchem examines Liverpool’s cosmopolitan profile and cultural...

One of the great conspiracy theories of the Second World War is that the ­Americans struck a deal with Mafia mobsters to ­conquer Sicily. Tim Newark exposes...

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the recovery of Henry VIII’s flagship Mary Rose from the seabed of the Solent. David Childs examines how her long career was...

April  25th, 1707

The Shakespeare First Folio is one of the iconic books in the cultural tradition of the West. Jonathan Bate explains why he is the first scholar for centuries to...

The Victoria and Albert Museum’s exhibition, ‘Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design’, opens on March 29th. Becky Conekin looks forward to it.

Although most well-known cartoonists have been men, one of the most influential early figures in the field was a woman, Mary Darly. Cartoon historian Mark Bryant...

Jules Hudson and Nick Barratt examine why family history has become the flavour of the month, as the  ‘Who Do You Think You Are? Live’ event at Olympia on May 5-7th...

Tobias Grey introduces a film about the North African soldiers in the Second World War which has taken France by storm, and is opening in Britain on March 30th....

Patricia Cleveland-Peck visits a Canadian city that looks to the future yet has an intriguing past.

Richard Hodges says the rubbish tips of Anglo-Saxon London and Southampton contain intriguing evidence of England’s first businessmen.