Jonathan Conlin

The Battle for Oil in the First World War

At the beginning of the 20th century the Great Powers competed for the right to extract the vast oil reserves around the Iraqi city of Mosul. The motivation – and prize – was energy security. 

Thinking Inside The Box

Jonathan Conlin considers a 1990 article on the past, present and future of history broadcasting, whose pessimistic forecasts have not quite come to pass.

The Strange Case of the Chevalier d’Eon

In the mid-18th century – at the height of the power struggle between France and England and the political ferment of both nations – a French spy with a peculiar personal agenda came to prominence in London. Jonathan Conlin tells his story.

Art for the People

Jonathan Conlin asks what the National Gallery has meant to the cultural and civic life of Britain since its foundation in 1824.

Not All That Again

Jonathan Conlin reads 1066 And All That, a book that served as a point of departure to so many people, seventy-five years after its first publication.