Geoffrey Powell

Jahangir’s Turkey-Cock

‘Larger than a peahen and smaller than a peacock’, Jahangir wrote in 1612. Geoffrey Powell describes how the bird reached England from America some decades before the Indian knew it.

The Praetorian Guard

Geoffrey Powell profiles the Praetorian Guard. This corps d'elite, first established on a permanent footing by Augustus, played a powerful part in the history of imperial Rome.

John Buchan's Richard Hannay

Stranger than Fiction - the undercover spying mission of a British officer disguised as a Boer in German South-West Africa provided John Buchan with inspiration for his most famous character.