Literature

The figure of Santa Claus is the very embodiment of the modern American secular Christmas. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

How America captured Christmas

British mystery writer Agatha Christie, c1926. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The mysterious disappearance of Agatha Christie

Knole, a house on an epic scale that's now run by the National Trust.

Explore Knowle: the grandest of family homes

British writer Roald Dahl

Second World War

11 things you might not know about Roald Dahl

Maoism

Julia Lovell’s Maoism: A Global History wins 2019 Cundill History Prize

The War of the Worlds. (Photo by BBC/© Mammoth Screen)

Days of future past: how the new BBC TV series The War of the Worlds reinvented the sci-fi classic

Actress Sarah Bernhardt, who was personally invited by Oscar Wilde to play the title role in the upcoming London premiere of his play, 'Salomé'.

6 of London theatre’s most notable historical scandals

We asked six leading authors and academics to pick works of fiction that have captured life in Britain. (Image by Getty Images)

6 novels that captured life in Britain

Two women outside a book shop in Leicester Square, London, with paperback copies of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' by D H Lawrence, after a jury at the Old Bailey decided that it was not obscene. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

The trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover: how the ‘obscene’ book caused a moral storm

Giant of literature: A page from the 'Beowulf' manuscript. The story is fictional but some of the characters within it were real people, and others were believed to be the ancestors of Anglo-Saxon and Danish kings. (Photo by Alamy)

Beowulf: The Anglo-Saxons’ action hero

A c1616 edition of King James bible. (Photo by Linda Davidson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

5 reasons why the King James version of the Bible matters

'Sanditon' - an adaption of Jane Austen's unfinished novel of the same name – is currently airing in the UK on ITV. Pictured: Clara Brereton (played by Lily Sacofsky), Esther Denham (Charlotte Spencer), Lady Denham (Anne Reid) and Edward Denham (Jack Fox). (Photo by RED PLANET/ITV)

Your guide to Sanditon, Jane Austen’s last unfinished work

A Maria Spilsbury painting of a group sat at a drawing room table

Romance and reality in Jane Austen’s world

Literary women through the ages: Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Brontë all enjoyed female friendships which enriched their writing, say Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney. (Getty Images)

From Austen & Brontë to Woolf: literature’s forgotten female friendships

Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet

Jane Austen’s tips for “health and happiness”