October 2011

Articles from the October 2011 issue of BBC History Magazine

Irish rugby fans in London for the international match between Ireland and England at Twickenham Stadium, 13 February 1937. (Photo by E Dean/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Rugby warriors: the rugby-playing heroes of the First and Second World War

A statue of the English queen Matilda in Luxembourg Garden, Paris. (Photo by Waring Abbott/Getty Images)

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

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?

A real and a virtual Tycho Brahe surveys the heavens next to his mural quadrant in the frontispiece to ‘Machines of the New Astronomy’. (Photo by DEA/G.DAGLI ORTI via Getty Images)

A history of science in 10½ objects

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)

First World War

The Library Douglas 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

Vasily Grossman with the Red Army in Schwerin, Germany, 1945. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Second World War

A war of words

Illustration by Jonty Clark

Ye olde travel guide: Venice 1500

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

Simon Jenkins on England