What is England, and who are the English? The man who first posed and answered these questions lived 1,200 years ago in Northumberland. The Venerable Bede spent almost his whole life in two monasteries looking over the North Sea, far from the centres of civilisation. Yet he became the foremost scholar of the first millennium, […]
Historia interview: Claire Hobson
On 29 May, Oak Apple Day, it’ll be 396 years from Charles II’s birth in 1630 and 366 since his restoration. To mark the occasion, Historia spoke to Claire Hobson, whose biography marks those 30 turbulent years that formed the future king. Your book, Charles II: From the Cradle to the Crown, looks self-explanatory from […]
Thoughtlands by Jacky Colliss Harvey
In the literary footsteps of such walkers as Rebecca Solnit and Lauren Elkin, and in the character of the ‘rambleuse’, Jacky Colliss Harvey traverses the county of Suffolk from west to east, from velvety farmlands to uncompromising sea. She is in excellent company – her fellow walkers range from Daniel Defoe and Robert Louis Stevenson […]
The Blood Countess by Shelley Puhak
There have long been whispers, coming from the castle; from the village square; from the dark woods.The great lady-a countess, from one of Europe’s oldest families-is a vicious killer. Some even say she bathes in the blood of her victims. When the king’s men force their way into her manor house, she has blood on […]
Queen Catherine’s Court by Sophie Shorland
Catherine of Braganza. Boring? Plain? Ineffectual? Think again. Charles II’s wife was a trouser-wearing tastemaker who introduced tea drinking, popularised card games and championed baroque fashion and art. Her salon culture was infamous for its parties, theatricals and frequent trips to the pub. A Catholic queen in a strictly Anglican country, she was the diplomatic […]
Tiberius by Lindsay Powell
History has not been kind to the memory of Tiberius Caesar (42BC to AD37), second emperor of the Romans. His reputation for capable generalship and sensible civic leadership are marred by reports of cruelty, treason trials and sexual depravity. Some historians have described him as a ‘tyrant’ or even a ‘monster’. But does he deserve […]
Prince Rupert of the Rhine by Mark Turnbull
Prince Rupert of the Rhine was an intrinsic part of the civil wars that devastated the three kingdoms of Stuart Britain. A nephew of King Charles I, Rupert was both the archetypical royalist hero and parliamentarian villain. In his lifetime, he accumulated at least nine derogatory pseudonyms – from ‘Duke of Plunderland’ to ‘The Diabolical […]
No Country For a Woman by Jane Dismore
Lady Dorothy ‘Dolly’ Mills was a trailblazer, whose larger-than-life personality led her to extraordinary adventures. Born in 1889 into the Walpole family, who were eminent in political and literary spheres, Dolly defied the constraints of her upper-class upbringing by marrying a poor army captain, prompting her disinheritance. From becoming the first English woman in Timbuktu […]