Political

Margaret of Burgundy

Richard Hughes asks whether the ‘Diabolical Duchess’ was in reality another Tudor victim.

The Career of A.J. Balfour

Graham Goodlad reviews the career of A.J. Balfour, an unsuccessful Prime Minister and party leader but an important and long-serving figure on the British political scene. 

Muhammad Ali: The Man Who Remade Alexandria

Once the classical world’s dominant port, by the early 19th century the city founded by Alexander the Great was seemingly in terminal decline. But the energy and vision of the Ottoman governor Muhammad Ali restored its fortunes and, ultimately, set Egypt on the path to independence, as Philip Mansel explains.

Birth of Ignacy Paderewski

Richard Cavendish remembers the birth of the pianist who was also briefly prime minister of Poland, on 18 November 1860.