Britain

David Gaimster reveals the origins and contents of the British Museum's Secretum, a hidden repository of artefacts deemed pornographic and unfit for public gaze by Victorian curators.

Mark Rathbone charts a dramatic transformation in the fortunes of the Liberal Party by examining its leaders.

Nigel Saul tells how, in spite of famines and visitations of the plague, conditions were better than ever before for those living in 1400.

Robert Peel suffered a fatal fall from his horse on June 29th, 1850. He died three days later.

Bruce Campbell argues that a unique conjunction of human and environmental factors went into creating the crisis of the mid-14th century.

Emma Mason argues that rising population brought a surprising degree of movement, politically, geographically and socially.

Richard Cavendish describes the execution of James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, on May 21st, 1650.

Richard Cavendish describes the relief of Mafeking, following a seven-month siege, on May 16th/17th, 1900.

Esmond Wright recalls the life of the American philosopher, scientist and man of letters in his years in a street near Charing Cross.