The Secret Service Major and the Invasion of Egypt
James Exelby unearths the activities of a forgotten British spy whose documents and memoir provide a fascinating insight into the circumstances surrounding the British occupation of Egypt.
Volume 56 Issue 11 November 2006
The Suez Canal Before the Crisis
When the Suez Canal was opened its creator predicted that he had marked the site of a future battlefield. When Britain occupied Egypt in 1882, it seemed inevitable they would be the ones to fight for it.
Hawking Peerages
Andrew Cook looks at the mysterious career of a man notorious for selling seats in the House of Lords.
Art for the People
Jonathan Conlin asks what the National Gallery has meant to the cultural and civic life of Britain since its foundation in 1824.
Hitler’s Gamble
Did Hitler intend to provoke a general war over Poland in September 1939 or was it a serious miscalculation? Adam Tooze examines the views of leading historians before offering his own, new, interpretation of the decisions and events in Germany that ignited the Second World War.
War and Barbarity
The history of our times has witnessed violence on an unimaginable scale. George Kassimeris reflects on the age-old horrors of warfare and struggles to find reasons for what leads men to perpetrate inexplicable acts of brutality.
A Very Personal Possession
Eamon Duffy tells how a careful study of surviving medieval Books of Hours can tell us much about the spiritual and temporal life of their owners and much more besides.
Capital Routes
Peter Barber, Head of Map Collections at the British Library, finds his way round ‘London: A Life in Maps’ a new exhibition opening at the British Library on November 24th.
Stink Vessels
Charles Stephenson introduces a plan for chemical warfare in the Napoleonic navy, devised by Thomas Cochrane, Lord Dundonald, the model for Patrick O’Brien’s Jack Aubrey.