Women Pilgrims of the Middle Ages
‘There’s no discouragement...Shall make him once relent...His first avowed intent... To be a pilgrim.’ Women, however, endured vexations of their own as Diana Webb outlines.
History Today
The Pirate, the Ambassador and the Map-Maker
When in 1681 pirate Bartholomew Sharpe captured a Spanish ship and with it a detailed description of the west coast of the Americas, he gave English cartographers a field day and won himself an unexpected acquittal. James Kelly explains.
The Martian Century
Roger Hennessy tells of a hundred years of investigation, imagination and speculation about life on Mars.
50 Years of the NHS
Charles Webster reflects on the achievements and shortcomings of fifty years of the National Health Service.
Opening of the London Olympics
Richard Cavendish remembers the opening of the ‘Austerity Olympics’ on 29 July 1948.
'Useless Mouths'
At the siege of Château Gaillard in 1204, the non-combatants caught up in the conflict were forced by the rival commanders out into the cold to endure appalling hardships. Sean McGlynn retells their story and explains the logic of war that made such things possible.
Last Cuppa
Paula Goddard marks the closure of the London Tea Auction.
More than Tea and Sympathy
Louise Westwood celebrates sixty years of that very British institution, the WVS.
Postscript on the Szent István
Graham Norton recounts the story of the sinking of the First World War Austro-Hungarian dreadnought, the Szent István, in view of the recent expeditions to the wreck.
Resisting Reform in the Lords, 1911
With the future of the House of Lords up for debate, Edward Pearce recounts the furore surrounding the passing of the 1911 Parliament Act.