The Corps Franc Pommiès (CFP) was founded on 17 November 1942 by its namesake, André Pommiès. It operated in south-western France, becoming one of the largest and most important Resistance units in the south. After initial work in the sabotage of rail and road networks, factories and power plants, on 15 April 1944 it sabotaged […]
Turning Welsh history into fiction: the Mynydd Epynt clearances
The Mynydd Epynt clearances of 1940, when a Welsh mountain community was evicted to make way for a military training ground, inspired Luisa A Jones’s latest book, Before the Mountain Falls. Here she talks about turning history into fiction: how she researched, what she kept, the historical novelist’s responsibility to the past. In the spring […]
Review: Samurai at the British Museum
Lesley Downer, author of The Shortest History of Japan, visits the Samurai exhibition at the British Museum and discovers that it’s “an exhibition of treasures” which show that the samurai were patrons of the arts as well as warriors. Prepare to be dazzled! A magnificent and ferocious-looking samurai in full armour stands guard at the […]
The Man Who Stopped the Sultan by Edoardo Albert
Throughout the 16th century, wars raged across Europe as kings and republics jostled for wealth and power. Yet one man exceeded all these medieval princes of Christendom: Suleiman the Magnificent. As ruler of the Ottoman Empire, he governed 25 million people from Constantinople, his realm stretching from Persia to the Atlantic Ocean. Turning his gaze […]
How an engineer stopped Sultan Suleiman from conquering Rhodes
How could an engineer stop the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, and his huge army from conquering the Knights Hospitaller on their island of Rhodes? By being a superb underground warfare tactician, Edoardo Albert explains. This is the story behind his new book, The Man Who Stopped the Sultan. The drum began to chime. This […]
1217: The Battles that Saved England by Catherine Hanley
In 1215 King John had agreed to the terms of Magna Carta, but then reneged on his word, plunging the kingdom into war. Rebellious barons offered the throne to the French prince, Louis, and set off a chain of events that almost changed the course of English history. Louis arrived in May 1216, was proclaimed […]
King Harold Godwinson’s death – did the Bayeux Tapestry embroider the truth?
When the Bayeux Tapestry comes to the British Museum next year it’ll be easier for many of us to see for ourselves the moment that changed English history for ever: Harold Godwinson shot in the eye at the Battle of Hastings. But, says Paul Bernardi, that may not be what happened on 14 October, 1066. […]
Blitz Kids: celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day
On 8 May, 2025, it’s the 80th anniversary of VE Day. To mark the day, Duncan Barrett remembers the stories of the Blitz Kids, told to him by eyewitnesses who, as children, lived through the bombing of Britain’s cities during the Second World War. It’s 2012 and my partner Nuala and I are in the […]