Sex and love

Broadcaster and author Cathy Newman shares stories of duos that changed the course of history. (Image by Getty Images)

Rivalries and romances: couples that shook up history

An Athenian red-figure kylix (cup) dating from around 510–500 BC depicts a young pentathlete pulling his older lover towards him for a kiss. In many of the city-states of ancient Greece, sex between a man and a youth was an accepted – even idealised – form of love, its virtues extolled in works by writers including Plato. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

General ancient history

Pride and prejudice: same-sex relations through history

Historian Carol Dyhouse talks about how women's lives, dreams and loves have transformed in the decades since 1950, from the advent of the pill to the impact of second-wave feminism. (Image by Alamy)

Sex, romance and rights: women’s lives since 1950

GettyImages-187574416-2-2edce12

A history of Valentine’s Day celebrations – from fertility festivals to the first cards

A portrait of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c1340-1400), who modern literary scholars credit for turning Valentine into the patron of love. Chaucer was a major influencer in his day – after him, everyone began calling their beloved “Valentine” and writing love poems on 14 February, says Lisa Bitel. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Who was Saint Valentine? A history of the figure’s origins

Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, pictured in 1854. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Roger Fenton/Getty Images)

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: what was their relationship like?

An account of the story of James Allen, whose sex at birth was revealed only by an autopsy conducted after their death

‘Female husbands’: the secret lives of 18th-century transgender pioneers

A portrait of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with five of their nine children, by Frederick Winterhalter. (Photo by © Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: was their union a marriage of misery?

Queen Victoria in her coronation robes.

Your guide to Queen Victoria and a timeline of her life – plus 16 fascinating facts

Portrait of Anne of Cleves

Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s most successful queen?

A 19th-century engraving. A young woman plays a harp, singing a duet with a man holding the music book, Duets de L’Amour. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

A survivor’s guide to Georgian marriage

A cartoon depicting the Duke of Wellington, who demands attention outside a house, while the Duke of Argyll, inside with Harriette Wilson, pretends not to recognise him.

Georgian Britain: sex in high places

Rege-Jean Page as Simon Basset and Phoebe Dynevor as Daphne Bridgerton

Bridgerton: “A period drama like no other”

Nelson's passion for Emma – with whom he had a six-year affair – is writ large in his letters

Nelson in his own words

Jane Austen. (Image by Getty Images)

Jane Austen’s fiction: an accurate portrayal of life in Georgian England?