Weird and wonderful

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor playing Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII in the 1963 film, Cleopatra. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)

The 7 best couples in history

A postcard showing for women hunting for a man with guns and dogs.

Why do women propose in a leap year?

An Art Deco mechanical valentine (moving the cape causes the arms to move up and down) from the 1930s. (Photo by Alan Mays)

Lewd, creepy and insulting: 9 surprisingly dark Valentine’s Day cards from the past

Bottle of 'love potion'

General ancient history

Spanish fly, holy bread and mashed worms: history’s weirdest aphrodisiacs and love potions

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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)

A brief history of Valentine’s Day – from the patron saint of epilepsy to Chaucer’s love tales

Mary Beard's Shock of the Nude. (Photo by BBC/Lion TV/Helena Hunt)

A history of nakedness in art: Mary Beard on her new BBC series Shock of the Nude

Historian Mary Beard at the Oxford Literary Festival 2019. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)

Mary Beard on the nude in western art

The 18th-century rabbit breeding hoax (Photo by Getty Images)

The woman who gave birth to rabbits

Portrait of John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (Lord Lucan), who disappeared in 1974 following a bloody homicide

The curious case of Lord Lucan + 10 other mysterious disappearances from history

Thomas Blood stealing the Crown Jewels

The day Thomas Blood stole the Crown Jewels

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector

General Early Modern

Royalists, beards and cowardice: are these the strangest taxes in history?

Catherine de Valois is seen here marrying Henry V, who was 14 years her senior, as part of the 1420 Treaty of Troyes. Following Henry's death she wed Welshman Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur, who is variously referred to as the queen’s steward, page or cupbearer. (Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy)

Scandalous Tudor marriages: 7 women who braved royal wrath by marrying for love

Edvard Munch's painting 'Love and Pain'

The Vampyre stirs: 200 years of vampire entertainment

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

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