Cultural

John Clive records how, during the opening years of the 19th century, Edinburgh added to its European reputation by producing one of the most famous critical magazines of the age.

Alan Yorke-Long documents the beginnings of Georgian England's affair with the music of the Hanoverian composer.

Quentin Bell unveils deeper meanings from the ever-evolving history of fashion and fancy dress.

Lucy Inglis admires Nicholas Orme’s article on medieval childhood, first published in History Today in 2001.

Helen Szamuely explores the unprecedented success of a household manual and cookery book produced by a Russian housewife, Yelena Molokhovets, following the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861.

‘If ever a house radiated cheerfulness, that house is Versailles.’ Nancy Mitford on the royal palace in the middle years of Louis XV.

For over half a century, James Bond’s mix of ‘sex, snobbery and sadism’ has proved enduringly popular, outlasting the Cold War that birthed him. Why? 

Richard Lowe-Lauri looks at the decline of bull running in the English town of Stamford.

J.L. Laynesmith unravels one of the mysteries of the Bayeux Tapestry.

The pioneering traveller was born on 13 October 1862.