Illustration of strange creatures

Weird and wonderful history

The Romanovs and King Arthur.

A brief history of camouflage

5 hidden killers of the Victorian home.

Postwar Germany and medieval CSI.

Chess, gambling and cards: Tudor games and indoor pastimes.

The history of middle-class wine drinking

5 festive facts from BBC Two’s QI

The gruesome remains of prehistoric murder victims uncovered in Europe's bogs.

Making of Blodeuwedd, the false flower-woman of Welsh myth. (Photo by Ivy Close Images/Alamy)

Celtic myths: the tales that might have inspired Star Wars and Harry Potter.

9 strange facts about the history of apples.

In pictures: Medieval women

Q&AWhy do we say ‘in the limelight’?

Tixall Gatehouse, Staffordshire. (Photo by The Landmark Trust)

10 of Britain’s most amazing landmark buildings.

19th-century men in traditional dress, Marken Island, Netherlands.

General ancient history

Q&AWhen were trousers first worn?

Portrait of Oliver Cromwell. This is one of several replicas of a portrait by Sir Peter Lely. Cromwell is supposed to have said: “I desire you would use all your skill to paint your picture truly like me… but remark all these roughness, pimples, warts and everything as you see me. Otherwise, I will never pay a farthing for it.”

Why do we say 'warts and all'?

Great British eccentrics: 7 of the most peculiar people in history.

Winston Churchill with a bulldog mascot as he leaves the Wanstead Conservative Club in his Woodford, Essex constituency on general election day, 23 February 1950. (Photo by Central Press/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Second World War

Q&AWhat is the significance of the British Bulldog?

Medieval banquet: saying grace before meal. From an engraving of an illuminated medieval Royal Manuscript. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Medieval kebabs and pasta: 5 foods you (probably) didn’t know were being eaten in the Middle Ages.

The ‘Spruce Girls’ wearing their specially made wooden bathing suits in 1929. (Credit: © Historic Collection / Alamy)

Second World War

6 weird inventions in history

'The Cricket on the Hearth' published in 1845 by Charles Dickens. (Image by Getty)

Cats in history: 3 curious tributes

A brief history of graffiti and creativity.

BBC History Magazine

8 weird and wonderful pictures from the past

When Hitler took cocaine.

Showering, teeth brushing and donning underwear: the strange history of our daily routine.

A portrait of Elizabeth I.

The enchanting history of charisma.

In pictures: Victorian life

10 dangers of Georgian London.

The daily hustle and bustle in the busy fishing port of Newlyn in Penzance, Cornwall, c1870. (Photo by Gibson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Top 10 historical Cornish words

In pictures: Blackpool beach through time

Children running down a street

Q&AWhy do we say ‘run amok’?