Sherlock Holmes and Cocaine: The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
Sherlock Holmes is the 19th century’s most famous cocaine user, but why did he take it?
Literature
The Rise of the Newts
A speculative novel about an amphibious threat held dire warnings for interwar Europe.
Has Literature Ever Changed the Course of History?
On the 100th anniversary of its publication, James Joyce’s Ulysses is widely regarded as a groundbreaking work of fiction, but can literature have any impact outside the confines of culture?
A Peach of a Project
The author of the quaint, but much-loved Ladybird books was also a radical playwright.
Falling in Love with the NHS
In the 1950s Mills & Boon’s medical romances helped make the NHS more appealing to an ambivalent British public.
It’s Laughable
An account of laughter as a force for societal good.
The Death of the Library?
Throughout the centuries countless libraries and carefully curated book collections have been dispersed, destroyed or lost.
A Philosophy of Falcons
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, was obsessed with falconry. This led him to write a truly revolutionary book on the subject.
Think of the Children!
Britain’s obscenity trials and censorship laws.
The Road less Travelled
Female explorers of the 19th century demolished Victorian notions of stay-at-home women. But why were they so vehemently anti-feminist? The case of Mary Wollstonecraft may hold the answer.