Cultural

Doing it Better Than Mother

Liane Aukin looks at the private life of Florence Nightingale, and at how her strained relationship with her mother shaped her destiny.

Emmeline Pankhurst

Paula Bartley reappraises the role of the leader of the Suffragettes.

Spinning Out of Control

Ian Hargreaves traces the origins, and deplores the impact, of the unholy alliance between public relations and politics, business and journalism.

Study after The Raft of the Medusa, unknown artist, after Théodore Géricault. Musée de la Vie romantique. Public Domain.

Britain and the Medusa Shipwreck

The French tragedy at sea, immortalised in Géricault’s masterpiece The Raft of the Medusa, was put to use in the service of British patriotism.

Abraham Lincoln’s Library

Richard Carwardine describes the new library dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.

Film in Context: Gallipoli

Matthew Stewart discusses Peter Weir's 1981 cinematic tour de force, and what it tells us about the ANZAC myth.

The Spanish Inquisition

Simon Lemieux examines the hard facts about the Inquisition and counters the common caricature.

The essay entitled 'How important was the press in the desacralisation of the French monarchy in 1789?', by Olivia Grant of St Paul's Girls' School, was awarded the Julia Wood Prize out of 136 entries. An edited version appears below; a second award was made to Richard Eschwege of City of London School for an essay on Pope Gregory VII.