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Smooth operator

SECOND WORLD WAR | KATE VIGURS acclaims a vibrant account of the life and wartime travails of American-French cabaret artist - and covert resistance operative - Josephine Baker

2 mins read

Caledonian chronicle

RAB HOUSTON has mixed feelings about an energetic but uneven romp through four centuries of Scottish political, social, cultural and economic history

4 mins read

A dramatic solar storm lights up the Earth

2 SEPTEMBER 1859 | The "Carrington Event" causes auroras and telegraph chaos

2 mins read

Why PMs get the push

Boris Johnson's announcement that he is set to resign as prime minister threw the British government into turmoil in July - and saw him join a small group of PMs brought down by scandal. RICHARD TOYE explores what we can learn from the demise of previous premiers

6 mins read

Want to know why Henry VI's reign was such a disaster? Then look no further than his father

Henry VI fell foul of the French, his soldiers, even his own advisors. Yet, writes Lauren Johnson, his greatest enemy was the revered warrior-king who left him the throne 600 years ago

Stalingrad through German eyes

Iain MacGregor explores the previously unpublished testimony of a German officer on the front line | In September 1942, German lieutenant colonel Friedrich Roske declared himself "the master of the centre of Stalingrad" after his troops had smashed their way into the heart of the city. But with thousands of Soviet guardsmen poised to launch a furious counter-attack, his triumph was to be short-lived. Roske's previously unpublished testimonies reveal, in unsparing detail, the grim fate of the German troops holed up in Stalingrad as the Red Army began to tighten its grip...

"For too long medieval women have been written out of history. It's high time we put them back in"

Janina Ramirez introduces three trailblazers whose stories show that medieval women were far more than the wives, sisters and aunts of men

9 mins read

In 1678, Catholic assassins a plot to murder hatched Charles II... or did they?

Victor Stater tells the story of the Popish Plot, an elaborate fake news story that reshaped British politics - and sent dozens of innocent people to the gallows

The enduring trauma of partition

In 1947, British India was split in two, sparking a wave of violence that defined the new nations for decades. On the 75th anniversary of partition, Kavita Puri looks at how subsequent generations in south Asia and the UK have come to terms with its legacy