"Before my children shall be taken, I will kill every one of them"

The BBC series Lady Killers investigates historical murders perpetrated by women.

"Climate is a factor that underpins all of human history"

Peter Frankopan talks to Rhiannon Davies about his pioneering new book exploring how humanity's complex relationship with the natural world has altered over the millennia

The first families of the second city

The story of modern Birmingham is dominated by two clans, whose radical views and fierce commitment to public service forged its distinctive identity.

William Douglas: The infamous bushranger

Hard drinker, bandit, prize-fighter and reader of skulls. MEG FOSTER unravels the myth of \"Black Douglas\", whose life of crime across 19th-century Australia made him a target of lynch mobs and the popular press

Hot cockles, handball and hide-and-seek

Nicholas Orme highlights some of the most popular children's pastimes in Tudor England - from ball games to blind man's buff - and explores their place in wider society

GEORGE VI'S NAZI DILEMMA

As war raged across the globe, the king had to confront admirers of Adolf Hitler uncomfortably close to home

AT THE MERCY OF THE MONGOLS

They pulled off one of the most astonishing campaigns of conquest in history. But how did they treat their subject populations once the dust had settled?

13 February 1858 European explorers first glimpse Lake Tanganyika

Burton and Speke seek the source of the river Nile

When art turns odd

Our podcast editor Ellie Cawthorne discusses a recent episode on the weirdest masterpieces in art history - and what they can tell us about the depth of human imagination

12 February 1554 Lady Jane Grey is executed for treason

The young woman installed as a Protestant alternative to Queen Mary meets a tragic end

Olive's role in the BBC's earliest days deserves to be remembered

WHEN WE CONSIDER THE BBC'S FIRST 100 YEARS, distinguished director generals come to mind, along with famous presenters and favourite programmes. Yet it's likely that you have never heard of the wonderfully named Olive Bottle.

The long fight over abortion rights in the United States

Fifty years ago, the US Supreme Court's landmark Roe v Wade ruling guaranteed access to abortion throughout the United States - a decision that was reversed last summer. ALLISON MCKIBBAN charts the complex, often contradictory currents that have shaped women's reproductive rights in America

Britain's century of strike action

Recent months have seen thousands of workers - including nurses, railway employees and postal staff go on strike around the United Kingdom. RICHARD TOYE explores the nation's history of industrial action, and the extent to which it has been driven by political ideology or practical concerns

"Indigenous Americans who travelled across the Atlantic were horrified by inequalities in European society"

Caroline Dodds pennock talks to Ellie Cawthorne about her new book tracing the remarkable stories of Indigenous Americans who voyaged to Europe after 1492

Breast practice

Joanna Wolfarth's new book is a love letter to all women who have cradled an infant close to their breasts.

Liberal views

RICHARD TOYE is intrigued but ultimately unconvinced by a detailed account of the state of British liberal politics in the first years of the 20th century

Centuries of iron

JONATHAN BOFF is impressed by a comprehensive and insightful military history of Germany and its southern neighbours

Trading on reputations

LUBAABA AL-AZAMI has mixed feelings about an insightful but sometimes Eurocentric look at the development of the East India Company

How people power fuelled England's century of chaos

Charles I's clashes with parliament may dominate the history books, but behind the turmoil of the 17th century lay something deeper: a political awakening of the people

7 Alyce Boyle, the ballad singer who performed for a queen

1 Elizabeth Stile, the condemned witch Elizabeth Stile was a witch - at least, in the minds of many of her contemporaries. She was 65 years old, widowed, and living in Windsor when she was accused of witchcraft. Together with her associates, she was accused of killing several people and bringing harm to many others, with the help of familiars including a rat, a black cat and a toad.

The voice of a female golden age

The 14th century was a time of great change in England - not least for women, who enjoyed more autonomy, work opportunities and wealth. Marion Turner explains what Chaucer's outspoken Wife of Bath reveals about their lives and thoughts

The age of transmation

Those who write off the Middle Ages as an unchanging backwater are overlooking the seismic advances - in everything from scientific knowledge to self-awareness - that redefined what it meant to be human, argues lan Mortimer

The history that shaped the Queen’s funeral

People around the world were transfixed by the scale and splendour of Elizabeth II's funeral in September - a ceremony that drew explicitly on centuries of British royal traditions. TRACY BORMAN reveals how such events have changed, yet remained the same, across generations

Past tense, future perfect?

PATRICIA FARA lauds a detailed double biography of grandfather-and-grandson thinkers whose ideas on evolution were both influential and inflammatory

Power behind the throne

KATIA WRIGHT is entertained and (mostly) impressed by a book examining the lives and influence of five English queens of the 14th century

“What unites these commanders Is selt-beliet. It they didn't have faith in themselves, no one else would”

AL MURRAY tells Spencer Mizen about his new book profiling 10 military leaders whose experiences shine a light on the Allies’ extraordinary transformation in the Second World War

Ruins and royalty

Surrounded by verdant Suffolk countryside, Bury St Edmunds rose to prominence as a pilgrim hotspot in the Anglo-Saxon era before its fortunes dipped during the Dissolution. RHIANNON DAVIES pays a visit

Noor Inayat Khan 1914-44

MY HISTORY HERO Actor and TV presenter Sam Naz chooses

A DYNASTY OF DESPOTS

From the colossal to Tutankhamun's temples of Luxor golden death mask, the pharaohs of ancient Egypt's golden age created some of history's greatest treasures. Yet, writes Guy de la Bédoyère, behind the glittering facade lay a society built on brutality, inequality and staggering levels of corruption

“She was in the world of change but somehow apart from it”

Throughout her reign, Queen Elizabeth II remained a constant presence in an era of vast social, technological and geopolitical transformation. Anna Whitelock charts an era in which Britain, but not its queen, changed beyond recognition