Writing Wrongs
The anti-Russian poetry of Frances Browne, the ‘Blind Poetess of Ulster’.
History Today
The Extraordinary Journey of David Ingram by Dean Snow review
Great cities more than a mile long, ‘banquette houses’, elephants, and birds with heads ‘as big as a man’s: the journey of David Ingram.
The Valladolid Debate on the Rights of Indigenous People
Was the subjugation of indigenous peoples a just means to expedite Christianity? On 15 August 1550, a humanist scholar and a Dominican friar debated.
Goodbye Eastern Europe by Jacob Mikanowski review
Is it time to say goodbye to Eastern Europe, a world remade so frequently by empires, war and political ideologies that it scarcely stays the same for two generations in a row?
Origins and Originality
What does it mean to be happy? For poets, medieval and modern, joy comes in many forms.
Was Richard III a Bad King?
Child-murderer, arch villain, failed monarch, ‘northern’. Have efforts to redeem Richard III succeeded or is he still one of history’s worst kings?
On the Spot: Feargal Cochrane
Why am I a historian of Irish politics? I grew up in 1970s Belfast, where contested versions of history were literally written on the walls.
The Great White Bard and Shakespeare Without a Life review
Two significant new publications push the parameters of how we engage with the most revered writer in the English language.
Pulp Fiction
Marketed as the taste of French summer, Orangina’s origins are complicated.
Crowning Triumph
Westminster Abbey was the focus of the world during the recent coronation. How and why was it built?