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Alistair Goldsmith describes how Glasgow's police force endeavoured to preserve the city's standing as it played host to a series of international set-pieces.

Fools' gold, Dr Faustus - traditional images of a Renaissance black art. But was there more to it than that? Zbigniew Szydlo and Richard Brzezinski offer an intriguing rehabilitation.

Lev Razgon's unique and chilling encounter with one of Stalin's mass murderers.

In the second instalment of a two part article, Roger Eatwell chooses between rival definitions of a slippery word

Robin Bruce Lockhart celebrates the past and present of the immortal dram and its historic links with our seasonal festivities at Christmas and New Year.

Denise Silvester-Carr introduces the new Famine Museum at Strokestown, County Roscommon.

Raphael Mokades - the winner of the 1996 Julia Wood Award - argues that military failure in the Boer War transformed political attitudes in Edwardian Britain.

Elizabeth van Houts reconstructs memories of occupation (with echoes of the 1940s) from post-Norman conquest chronicles.

Richard Hodges wanders through the medieval village of Rocca in Tuscany.