Illustration of strange creatures

Weird and wonderful history

Q&A: How did the Romans write fractions?.

What are the origins of the ‘mutes’ that attended Victorian funerals?.

BBC History Magazine

The phone call

Painting depicting medieval nuns. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

17th-century nuns on the run.

English medical student Roger Bannister

A history of British sport.

An 18th century village in Germany. Strict laws regulated the goods that each social class could buy. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Beware what you buy: the goods German citizens were forbidden to consume.

An illustration from ‘A Short History of the English People’ by John Richard Green. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Drowning in Tudor England: why was water so dangerous?.

How far could a person expect to travel in a single day on horseback or in a stagecoach?

Prehistoric village people: exploring the Orkney Islands.

A woodcut showing Prince Rupert of the Rhine's pet poodle Boy being killed at the battle of Marston Moor

The prince and the devil dog: the strange story of Prince Rupert's poodle 'Boy'.

5 of the worst smells in medieval London

Barbary pirates: kidnapped in Iceland.

At the edge of reason: shaving and razors in 18th-century Britain.

Afternoon sunlight casting shadows on the hills, Lancashire, England UK (Getty Images)

The war on witches.

The man best associated with the new style of landscape gardening was William Kent (c1686–1748), a Yorkshire-born artist and architect. (Public domain)

The English landscape garden.

What is a deodand?

The reverend in the lion’s den

British soldier, explorer and big game hunter Frederick Selous, pictured in 1914. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The hunter who became a naturalist.

Obesity and the modern lifestyle: what can we learn from history?

The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England

Transport minister Ernest Marples on a road bridge near the London end of the newly opened M1 motorway, 2 November 1959. (Photo by George W. Hales/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

The first day on the M1.

A 1950s illustration of Vladimir Lenin on the sealed train between Switzerland and Russian. (Alamy)

10 ways to start a revolution.

Henry VIII, Princess Mary and William Somers

Playing the fool: Tudor jesters.

The 10 worst Britons in history

Alien spaceship landing on rural road

The secret search for aliens.