‘Impossible Monsters’ by Michael Taylor review
Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin and the War between Science and Religion by Michael Taylor revels in the tangles of Victorian thought.
Victorian
Reforming England’s Divorce Law
Reforms to divorce law inevitably prompt moral panic as they did in Victorian England. It has not yet proven to be justified.
‘Rites of Passage’ by Judith Flanders review
In Rites of Passage: Death & Mourning in Victorian Britain, Judith Flanders explores the commercialisation of grief and those who resisted the era’s conspicuous consumption.
Pet Monkeys in Victorian Britain
Pet monkeys became a popular fashion accessory for the Victorians, found in homes across the country. But they were rarely living a life of luxury.
‘With Her Own Hair’: A Victorian Prisoner’s Art
Arrested over 400 times, Annie Parker found redemption in intricate cross-stitch and crochet using her own hair.
India’s Kuka Revolt Ends in Death
On 17 January 1872, 49 Namdhari Sikhs – dubbed ‘Kukas’ by the British – were executed by cannon, supposedly for spreading insurrection.
Queen Victoria’s Stalker
Was the army captain in love with Queen Victoria a dangerous obsessive or an innocent man? His NSFW letters shocked but so did his treatment.
The Scandalous Success of the Daily Mail
In January 1944 the Daily Mail became the first transoceanic newspaper, having transformed the relationship between politics, the press and the people. How powerful is it really?
‘The Life & Death of States’ and ‘Vienna’ reviews
New books by Natasha Wheatley and Richard Cockett explain how for all its apparent anachronism the Hapsburg empire, and its capital, shaped the modern world.
The Death of Caspar Hauser
Caspar Hauser died on 17 December 1833, but was it murder or a self-inflicted wound? Hauser’s mysterious death raised as many questions as his mysterious life.