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Sir Winston, his son Randolph, and grandson, Winston in coronation robes, by Toni Frissell, June 1953. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

Winston Churchill’s Gold Record

Once the Second World War was won, Winston Churchill had two preoccupations: preserving his place in posterity and making lots of money. If they could be achieved simultaneously, so much the better.

Jews captured during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are forced from their shelters and marched to the Umschlagplatz for deportation, 1943. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park. Public Domain.

The Warsaw Ghetto in Flames

The story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is typically one of defiance against the odds during the Holocaust. But what of those unable to fight?

Prester John on his throne in Ethiopia, from a map of East Africa in the Queen Mary Atlas, by Diogo Homem, Portuguese, 1558.

Prester John: The King Who Wasn't There

Belief in Prester John, a lost Christian king ruling over a distant kingdom, gripped Europe for half a millennium. Once seen as a saviour, he would become an adversary.

‘Orange Tree, December 24, 1789’, by John Edwards. Minneapolis Institute of Art. Public Domain.

Maximilien Robespierre: Terror and Oranges

Liberté, égalité, fraternité – oranges? What does Maximilien Robespierre’s fondness for citrus fruit reveal?

William Shakespeare’s First Folio

The stage has a short memory, print a long one: 400 years since its first publication, Shakespeare’s First Folio is the reason we remember him.

A Life of Retirement

The Roman veterans village of Karanis in Egypt did not change the world. Its ordinariness is what makes it remarkable.

Asia and Africa Unite

In 1955, the Bandung Conference brought together post-colonial nations in the hope of forging a new solidarity. Could such disparate countries overcome their inherent differences?

© London Metropolitan Archives / Bridgeman Images.

Fostering the Foundlings

The governors of the London Foundling Hospital recruited an external network of nurses to care for children. For many, the bonds established endured.

Portrait of Süleyman by Nakkaş Osman, 1579.

The One True Emperor on Earth

As sultan, Süleyman the Magnificent was portrayed as the Shadow of God on Earth, the Caliph of Islam, the Last World Emperor, the distributor of crowns to other rulers and the purveyor of justice.