Literature

Ira Aldridge. (Granger, NYC/Alamy Stock Photo)

Ira Aldridge: Shakespeare’s black Othello

Illustration of a man without a head, but with his face on his chest. This is one of many creatures Sir John Mandeville claimed to have met on his travels

A knight’s (tall) tale: why medieval traveller Sir John Mandeville was more popular than Marco Polo

Illustration of the man in the iron mask standing by the window of his cell and guarded by two musketeers

Unmasking the ‘man in the iron mask’: do we know the identity of the famous prisoner?

Historian Dennis Duncan guides us through singular stories from the history of the book index

A surprising history of the index

Dr Benjamin Pohl explores the role of monks and abbots in the Middle Ages, and asks: why did they write histories?

Why did medieval monks write histories?

Perceval meets the Fisher King in an illustration for Chrétien de Troyes’ 12th-century Perceval, The Story of the Grail

How to write a medieval romance

Moves still from Rob Roy

How Walter Scott’s stories shaped Scotland

Walter Scott: an engraving after a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence of the Scottish poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott

Walter Scott: the man who invented Scotland

The Green Knight shows his severed – and still talking – head to King Arthur in this illustration of the beginning of the 14th century legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

“A eulogy to the cult of chivalry”: what can Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tell us about Edward III and the Hundred Years’ War?

Medieval romances were sometimes considered subversive material. This scene from the Roman de la Rose, written in the 13th century, depict two lovers. In later centuries, it was said romances “inflamed beastly and filthy desire”

The Mills & Boon of the Middle Ages? Unpicking the mysteries of medieval romances

A portrait of William Barnes. The accomplished linguist wanted to adopt a form of English purged of foreign imports

National English: the language that would save England

Ritchie Robertson responds to listener questions on the intellectual and philosophical movement that swept Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. (Image by Getty Images)

The Enlightenment: everything you wanted to know

Colour portrait of Jane Austen

Jane Austen: a guide to her life, books and death – plus 8 fascinating facts

Biographer Frances Wilson discusses a pivotal decade in the turbulent life of writer DH Lawrence. (Image by Getty Images)

Censorship, contradiction & controversy: a decade in the life of DH Lawrence

A portrait of William Barnes. The accomplished linguist wanted to adopt a form of English purged of foreign imports

Quiz Would you be able to speak in National English?