Britain

Hertha Ayrton’s experiment in a bathtub may have saved lives in the trenches, but it caused ripples among the ranks of the Royal Society.

‘I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer’: Letters on Love and Marriage from the World’s First Personal Advice Column by Mary Beth Norton reveals the 17th-century origins of the agony aunt.

Britain’s first book-of-the-month club – the Book Society – brought reading to a vast new audience. But not without some controversy.

Long overshadowed by Lindbergh, The Big Hop: The First Non-Stop Flight Across the Atlantic and Into the Future by David Rooney returns Alcock and Brown to aviation's top flight.

In the early 20th century the prison population in England and Wales was in sharp decline, despite a rise in crime. 

‘Mary, Bessie, James you ken, then Charlie, Charlie, James again...’ Does the litany of kings and queens help or hinder an accurate understanding of Britain’s past?

International cricket’s big day became its payday on 21 June 1975 when Australia faced the West Indies in the final of the first Cricket World Cup.

‘Who is the most underrated person in history? Mary Prince, an enslaved woman who played a critical role in the abolition of slavery.’

The Alienation Effect: How Central European Émigrés Transformed the British Twentieth Century by Owen Hatherley follows in the footsteps of those who fled fascism.

Margaret Thatcher struggled to write her own speeches. Who put the words in her mouth?