Volume 37 Issue 8 August 1987

‘Pastime with good company’ – how the image of ‘Bluff King Hal’ glosses over the harsh realities of life-and-death court intrigues played out among the nooks and crannies of the king’s private apartment.

A look into some of the most influential philosophers of the Victorian era.

Tony Aldous traces the history of the Octagon Chapel in Bath.

Gerhard Hirschfeld looks over the heated debate between West German historians and the Nazi past.

John Earl looks into the world of theatre.

Stranger than Fiction - the undercover spying mission of a British officer disguised as a Boer in German South-West Africa provided John Buchan with inspiration for his most famous character.

'Art offers itself as a social ' bridge of no ordinary size and strength.’ The career and campaigns of George Godwin centred on his editorship of The Builder - a tireless commitment to painstaking professionalism mixed with social concern for Victorian architects as problem-solvers and reformers.

Park Honan, author of a new biography of Jane Austen, describes how her naval brother's exploits informed her of the world beyond the genteel tea-cup society of her novels.

Terence Mirabelli investigates why Syria is losing an archaeological site.

Ian R. Mitchell examines the museums of East and West Germany which provide contrasting views to German history.