Victor Silvester brought ballroom dancing to the masses and his enormous influence persists to this day in the TV show Strictly Come Dancing. Much less well known is his extraordinary career as a boy soldier in the Great War. Richard Hughes sets the record straight.
The author of Whisky Galore played an active role in the Great War, experiencing both the horror of the Dardanelles in 1915 and the intrigues of wartime Athens. Yet his diplomatic ham-fistedness forced his premature exit. Richard Hughes explains.
Wedged between warring parties, Greece was vital to supplying the isolated Kingdom of Serbia but remained divided by pro-Entente and pro-German factions.
Told by Churchill to ‘go and sing when the guns are firing’, Noël Coward aspired to do more during the Second World War than entertain the troops.
Richard Hughes asks whether the ‘Diabolical Duchess’ was in reality another Tudor victim.
Robert Hughes provides an Examiner's Commentary
Richard Hughes lends us the benefit of his expertise.
Richard Hughes shows there is more of historical interest to William Prynne than his famous auditory organs.
