30th April, 2024 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture, Women in History
Introduction – G. Puccini, “Quando m’en vo'” La Boheme for Cello & Piano DARREN COFFIELD: Bohemian was a term used for those who lived unconventional lives, when the first Romani Gypsies appeared in sixteenth century France they were labelled bohemian and their non-conformist…
22nd April, 2024 in Military, Society & Culture
The thought arrived as I was hovering inside a crowded coffee shop directly opposite the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. Tables and bars pulsed with suited, brief cased, device-bashing professionals; the buzz from conversation being shouted and spoken into phones and faces…
13th March, 2024 in Society & Culture
Author Kristofer Allerfeldt is a professor of US history at the University of Exeter. He has written articles, both popular and academic; and lectured in Europe, the UK and the US. He has also produced four academic books. The Ku Klux Klan is his new book which seeks to demystify…
12th March, 2024 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture
One day, we got a phone call from Vanity Fair saying the photographer Michael Roberts would like to shoot us on Savile Row. Michael was something of a trailblazer himself. Only a couple of years earlier, he had shot Vivienne Westwood impersonating Margaret Thatcher for the cover…
7th March, 2024 in Society & Culture, Women in History
Cambridge University is internationally renowned for its ancient colleges. It is lauded for its educational excellence. But in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, infamy blighted its hallowed name. As an alarming number of courtroom dramas exposed the university’s steadfa…
9th August, 2023 in History, Natural World, Society & Culture
Feles: a cat, a mouser, but also a thief. The eyes of nocturnal animals like cats gleam and shine in the dark. Pliny, Natural History IX.55 Excavated cat bones and cat images on vases and coins are proof that cats were padding about southern Italy at the end of the fifth century…
4th May, 2023 in History, Society & Culture, Women in History
What was it like to give birth in Victorian Britain? Much depended, of course, on individual circumstances: health, wealth, social – including marital – status, and access to medical care. For the Queen for whom the period is named, childbirth was a painful, in some respects unwe…
18th April, 2023 in Biography & Memoir, History, Society & Culture
Fate called Andrija Artuković out of exile, back to his homeland. It was time to start building the Croatia that he’d been fighting for his entire adult life. At the age of 41, Artuković was assigned an important post in Ante Pavelić’s new cabinet: Minister of the Interior, taske…
28th March, 2023 in Society & Culture, Women in History
All wars devastate the lives of ordinary people. Death and glory linger on the battlefields while many millions at home suffer the pain of fear, anxiety and dread. As a war reporter, I have witnessed a great deal of anguish in the aftermath of conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and L…
23rd February, 2023 in History, Society & Culture, True Crime
My book was born on a cold winter afternoon when a train pulled into Edinburgh’s Waverley Station. Out walked a group of black-robed priests, led by the archbishop of the ancient Ethiopian city of Axum. Close behind came diplomats, officials, a delegation of Rastafarians from the…
1st February, 2023 in Society & Culture
June marks the beginning of Pride month. A month-long celebration and recognition of the LGBTQIA+ community, the history of gay rights and relevant civil rights movements. To commemorate this, we’re highlighting some people throughout history that may not be as well known but are…
15th August, 2022 in History, Society & Culture
Postcards and Pitman shorthand have seen their heyday but combined they form a fascinating glimpse into a forgotten world… I got to Blackpool yesterday but so far I am not very much in love with it. It is too much of a city. The weather has been shocking today, raining all…
16th June, 2022 in Entertainment, Society & Culture
Author of ‘The Microdot Gang’ James Wyllie, has put together the ultimate accompanying playlist to listen to while you read. An eclectic blend of rebellious punk, heavy acid rock, groovy blues, and booty-shaking drums, it’s got something for everyone. The complete playlist is ava…
11th April, 2022 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
The Dublin Foundling Hospital is the subject of a fascinating new book The Least of These by Mark B Roe. We caught up with the author to ask him about his approach to the work. Why did you find the story of the Dublin Foundling Hospital so compelling? Firstly, its sheer scal…
26th January, 2022 in History, Society & Culture
The twenty-first century bears witness to the continuing hostility that has been expressed towards the Jewish people. Why is it that Jews have been so bitterly hated? The aim of Antisemitism is to answer this question by surveying the history of antisemitism from a global perspec…
10th January, 2022 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
Historian and author Peter Higginbotham showcases the history of workhouse buildings. Read more in his latest book Workhouses of Wales and the Welsh Borders including new research on the many parish and union workhouses that operated in that area of the UK. Facilities that we wou…
22nd November, 2021 in History, Society & Culture
It’s a common misconception that our modern view of Christmas and how to celebrate it in the UK originated only in the nineteenth century. But although Queen Victoria and Prince Albert did much to promote various seasonal customs – for which I, for one, am grateful! – many of tho…
27th October, 2021 in Entertainment, Society & Culture, Women in History
In his latest book, author Stephen Bourne celebrates the pioneers of Black British theatre. A powerful study of theatre’s Black trailblazers and their profound influence on British culture today, Deep Are the Roots is also a personal history, and not an objective, academic one. H…
7th September, 2021 in Society & Culture
Halloween is one of those annual celebrations that we just accept as part of the year, like Christmas and Easter, often without question – it is just something that happens at the end of October. However, much like Christmas and Easter, Halloween is specifically placed at a time…
26th August, 2021 in Society & Culture, Women in History
In 1981, a group of women marched from Cardiff to Greenham Common to protest American nuclear missiles on British soil. Greenham Common Peace Camp lasted for 19 years in one of the most successful examples of collective female activism since the suffragettes. Bridget Boudewijn vi…
24th June, 2021 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment, Women in History
Maria Callas is one of opera’s greatest talents, and yet so much of her life is lost when we focus solely on Callas the artist and ignore Maria the woman. We spoke to Lyndsy Spence, author of Cast a Diva: The Hidden Life of Maria Callas, about Maria’s legacy… What drew you to Mar…
11th June, 2021 in History, Society & Culture
It was the year 1381. King Richard II was now in his fourteenth year and about to be tested by the Peasants’ Revolt… The coronation of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia He ruled over a troubled country. In the east and south of England there was great unrest, incited by the g…
5th May, 2021 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture, Women in History
Josephine Butler was once described as ‘the most distinguished Englishwoman of the 19th-Century’. Born in 1828, she was the leader of a national women’s political campaign – one of the very first. As a woman, she defied Victorian convention by becoming involved in politics….
23rd March, 2021 in Entertainment, Local & Family History
Garth Cartwright and Quintina Valero take us on a tour around London’s Record Shops. 1. HMV – the chain of record stores that once straddled the globe – started as a single shop at 363 Oxford Street, London. Opened in 1921 by parent company His Master’s Voice to sell the 78s and…
17th March, 2021 in History, Society & Culture, Women in History
Historically, the most common way for a woman to become a ruler was as a regent. There were, however, many cases where the regent decided to stay in power. A prime example is Empress Wu Zetian who, as consort, ruled over China’s Tang Dynasty. She married Emperor Gaozong in 655; h…
16th March, 2021 in Society & Culture, Trivia & Gift
We spoke to Yens Wahlgren, author of The Universal Translator, about his love for constructed languages. You describe yourself as a xenosociolinguist, could you tell us what that means? Well, it’s a made up academic-sounding discipline for the study of how languages from outer sp…
18th November, 2020 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
The cobbled streets of Leeds were paved with gold, industrial gold, that only found its way into entrepreneurial pockets of men clad in stiff white collars, frock coats, and gold Albert watchchains draped across their plump abdomens. Shoeless street urchins, gambolled from cobble…
4th November, 2020 in Society & Culture, Transport & Industry, Women in History
Life was difficult for women from the coalfields during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Those girls who were daughters of miners understood some of the difficulties, but it was still their ambition to marry into the industry and take on the responsibility for looking after the…
21st July, 2020 in History, Society & Culture, Women in History
The anchorite, or religious recluse, has been a part of Christian religious life since its early days. They lived solitary lives out in the desert – indeed, these solitaries became collectively known as the Desert Fathers. In Ireland the hermits often made their homes in rough st…
27th March, 2020 in Entertainment, Women in History
Diana Dors had a background of home stability and comfort. As the only child of financially stable parents much of her upbringing was cosseted and secure. Although Diana could be considered indulged, she was still a female child being raised in an age of male breadwinners and fem…