Illustration of a Medieval Scribe

Literature

A portrait of Thomas Cromwell

The Mirror & The Light book review: Hilary Mantel's epic finale "lives up to the hype"

London’s trailblazing women

'The Young Victoria' follows the early relationship of Victoria and her beloved Prince Albert. The monarch was played by Emily Blunt in the 2009 film. (Images by Bettmann/Getty Images/Alamy)

Leading ladies in love: 6 historical movies to watch this Valentine’s Day

Charles Manson stares out from fabric on sale in San Francisco

The afterlife of Charles Manson

During his time in Oxford, Wilde fully embraced ‘aesthetic flair’: growing his hair long; dressing in flamboyant fashions and assuming exaggerated affectations. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

7 facts you (probably) didn’t know about Oscar Wilde

Edvard Munch's painting 'Love and Pain'

The Vampyre stirs: 200 years of vampire entertainment

American actresses Frances Dee, Jean Parker, Katharine Hepburn, and Joan Bennett playing the March girls in George Cukor's film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women', 1933. (Photo by RKO Pictures/Courtesy of Getty Images)

“Fresh and full of soul”: the history of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women

A poster for Terence Fisher's 1958 horror 'Dracula'

From Dracula to The Historian: 5 gothic novels that reflected the anxieties of their age

How America captured Christmas

British writer Roald Dahl

Second World War

Roald Dahl11 things you might not know about the children's author

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

6 novels that captured life in Britain

The Monteagle letter, which shares a warning about the Gunpowder Plot. (National Archives)

In their own words: 6 of history’s most fascinating letters

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

5 reasons why the King James version of the Bible matters

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

Books interview with AC Grayling: “A great philosophical mind is one that belongs to a childish heart – always curious, always open”

The acclaimed English author Charles Dickens. (Photo by Apic/Getty Images)

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about Charles Dickens and his family home

A painting depicts a 14th-century sea battle

Medieval inspiration: what the fantasy genre owes to the 14th century

A Spanish publisher works on cloning the illustrated codex hand-written manuscript Voynich. (Photo by CESAR MANSO/AFP/Getty Images)

How the Voynich manuscript hit the headlines

In his native Como, Pliny the Younger's fame is reflected in his statue on the city cathedral's imposing west front, which was built in the 15th century. (Image by AKG Images)

Pliny's Rome: Vesuvius, vice and vestal virgins

Portrait of theologian and Bible translator John Wycliffe (c1330–84). (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

The murderous history of Bible translations

British spy writer Ian Fleming at his home, Goldeneye, in Jamaica. (Photo by Harry Benson/Express Newspapers/Getty Images)

The man behind James Bond

'Soccer' and 'diaper' are among many 'American' words that are more faithful to the old English tongue than those used in Britain today, says James Evans. Other 'Americanisms' were used in Shakespeare's plays before the first English colony was established in Virginia. (L to R: Photos by Hulton Archive/Getty Images; DeAgostini/Getty Images; Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

From candy to diapers: the purity of American English

Duncan Grant's studio at Charleston. Despite its lack of creature comforts, the East Sussex farmhouse became the weekend hub of the Bloomsbury set. (Photo by Charleston House/Tony Tree)

History ExplorerThe story of the Bloomsbury set

French writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and husband Willy, photographed c1902. (Photo by Apic/Getty Images)

Who was the real Colette?

The National Portrait Gallery attributed this unfinished portrait to Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra, and dated it to circa 1810. (Universal History Archive / Getty Images)

What did Jane Austen really look like?