April 2020

Expert articles from the April 2020 issue of BBC History Magazine

Ian Fleming, British author and creator of the James Bond character

James Bond in real life: where did Ian Fleming’s inspirations come from?

Anthonis Mor's portrait of Mary I from 1554

Mary Tudor: brutal but brilliant

(Illustration by Eleanor Shakespeare. Portrait of Christian Cole: ©The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, G. A. Oxon 4° 417, fol. 980)

Christian Frederick Cole: England’s first black barrister

Vivid experiences: a self-portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian Baroque artist whose brilliant renderings of biblical and classical scenes earned her commissions from some of the most powerful figures in 17th century Europe. (Photo by Araldo de Luca/Corbis via Getty Images)

Artemisia Gentileschi: how pain powered the great 17th-century artist

The US assault on Okinawa

Second World War

The WW2 battle of Okinawa: the bloodiest assault of the Pacific War

Greg Jenner. (Photo by Frank Monks)

Books interview Fame, fortune and falls from grace: Greg Jenner on the rise of celebrity culture

Bernard, abbot of Arbroath, and Robert Bruce hold up the Declaration of Arbroath on a monument in the town. (Image by Getty Images)

Scotland’s cry for liberty: the Declaration of Arbroath

Thomas Ellis charted the frantic efforts to bring the crew of Apollo 13 home. (Image by Getty Images)

The race to save Apollo 13

Rosa Parks (right) riding on a bus following the Supremacial segregation on Montgomery's public transit system. (Photo by Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images)

My history hero Gabby Logan chooses Rosa Parks (1913–2005)

Jesus appears before Pontius Pilate in a crowd scene from Oberammergau's 2010 Passion Play. The Bavarian town stages the mammoth production once every ten years, with a cast made up entirely of local residents. (Photo by Brigitte Maria Mayer Passionsspiele Oberammergau 2020)

Travel to: Oberammergau, Germany

A portrait of Thomas Cromwell

The Mirror & The Light book review: Hilary Mantel’s epic finale “lives up to the hype”