People watching the Royal Wedding

United Kingdom

Whitby Abbey, North Yorkshire

North West Museum of Road Transport, St Helens

BBC History Magazine

If I ran the country, I’d throw Halloween on the bonfire

Matilda: William the Conqueror’s queen.

British microbiologist and discoverer of penicillin, Alexander Fleming. (Photo by Ipsumpix/Corbis via Getty Images)

A big day in history: Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.

The LibraryA new history of England and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Queen Matilda.

Anti-capitalist graffiti referencing the Nike slogan ‘Just Do It’. Mayday riots, London, 2001. (Photo by PYMCA/UIG via Getty Images)

Opinion: should historians comment on current affairs?

Kathleen Kenyon challenged biblical accounts with her pioneering work at the ancient city of Jericho. (Photo by Bettmann/contributor via Getty Images)

My history hero: Kathleen Kenyon (1906–78).

Douglas Haig (right) watches the stamping of poppies by ex-servicemen, during a visit to the British Legion poppy factory in Richmond, 22 October 1926. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

The LibraryDouglas Haig: a postwar revolutionary?.

A portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s ‘spymaster’. (Photo by Photo 12/UIG via Getty Images)

Sir Francis Walsingham: spy-master extraordinaire and Elizabeth I’s security chief.

View across the river Clyde to Dumbarton Rock and the medieval Dumbarton Castle. (Photo by Martin W Holt via Getty Images)

History explorer: Alfred and the Vikings.

Roche Abbey, Yorkshire

BBC History Magazine

The BBC Story

Anne of Cleves House, East Sussex

The front page of the first edition of The Sun newspaper. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)

A big day in history: The Sun first appeared on shelves in newsagents.

Caerphilly Castle, Glamorgan

BBC History Magazine

The BBC Story

Bernard Cornwell on his novels.

The East India Company and Nelson.

The spies of Queen Elizabeth I.

Being a British Missionary and troubles in Ireland.

The end of slavery and headaches in history.

Bluestones, like these in the Preseli hills, were used to build Stonehenge. (Photo by Paula Connelly via Getty Images)

Britain’s buried secrets.

A London Missionary Society (LMS) mission in Papua New Guinea, c1920s. (Photo by Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo)

Married to a missionary.

BBC History Magazine

To the Ends of the Earth: Scotland’s Global Diaspora, 1750–2010

Clare Priory, Suffolk

My history hero: Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910).

A portrait of Henry VII in 1505. His claim to the throne was tenuous and he had to see off a posse of pretenders, yet he proved a canny and competent ruler, modernising the justice system and filling the crown’s coffers. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Henry VII: the survivor and stabiliser.

BBC History Magazine

Is public spending elbowing out private endeavour?