History Today

Churchill and the Monarchy

'You are Monarchial No. 1 and value tradition, form and ceremony.' But was Clementine Churchill's encomium of her husband always reflected in Winston's personal relations with Britain's kings and queens over six decades? Philip Ziegler presents an account of a colourful but chequered relationship.

Deserters from the Plough

Hardyesque idyll or a vision of dereliction and random cruelty? Alun Howkins looks at how historians have treated the story of nineteenth-century rural Britain.

'A Universal Place of Study'

Three hundred years ago the seal was set for an educational establishment in Virginia that has since exercised a powerful cultural and social influence in North America. J.E. Morpurgo looks at the life and times of the College of William and Mary.