Dominic Sandbrook is a historian and presenter. His series about Britain in the 1980s was shown last year on BBC Two Annie Edson Taylor pictured in c1901 with the barrel that carried her over Niagara Falls. The so-called Queen of the Mist became the

Reaktion, 298 pages, £14.99 Colleen Moore was the doyenne of flappers. From 1917 until the early 1930s, this American actor wowed audiences with her bold, carefree mannerisms, boyish body, pudding-bowl hairstyle and brightly painted lips. As she told

Edward Lear, pictured c1880. The poet and artist suffered “considerable psychological conflict” Faber & Faber, 608 pages, £25 Edward Lear is best known for his nonsense rhymes, written largely for children but with an appeal across all ages. He was a

“The carnage at Lepanto was staggering. In just four hours 40,000 men were killed – a rate of slaughter not surpassed until the battle of Loos in 1915. For Europe it was a triumph equivalent to Trafalgar, and was a total victory that restored Christi

Mills’s intriguing novel opens in Paris in 1937. When Luke Hamilton, a minor British Embassy official, is targeted by an assassin, he is saved by an enigmatic agent named Borodin, who seems to know things about him of which he is himself ignorant. As

We know that it was one of Henry VIII’s favourite royal residences, and that in the early 16th century it was the most important royal palace in England. When Henry VII came to the throne, he enlarged the existing Placentia Palace considerably. The b

The tower in which the great bell is housed was known as the Clock Tower until 2012 when it was renamed Elizabeth Tower in honour of the Queen’s diamond jubilee. It is the great bell within the tower that is known as Big Ben, probably named after Sir

Visions of futures in which we’re constantly watched are often rooted in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. But what if it’s not Big Brother we should be worried about but each other. What if it’s social media that’s driving surveillance? And how

Experts at Queen Mary University of London and the Bank of England archives have found evidence that the British government’s initial efforts to fund the war effort in 1914 through public loans were a huge failure. Studying restricted Bank of England

The elegant spire of University Church, Oxford, is a distinctive sight on the city skyline Hundreds flocked into University Church to watch the trial – guilty verdicts had long been a foregone conclusion The sandy buildings around cobbled Radcliffe S

Researchers examining a 9,000-word diary containing a supposed confession by 19th-century serial killer Jack the Ripper believe they can now trace the work back to Liverpool cotton merchant James Maybrick. The work first appeared in 1992, when it was

Malcolm X visits the UK to meet black activists, including Michael de Freitas. De Freitas converts to Islam, adopts the name Michael Abdul Malik or ‘Michael X’, and forms the Racial Adjustment Action Society. Stokely Carmichael’s UK visit was the st

After Edward VI’s death in 1553, Mary evaded capture by Protestants wishing to secure Lady Jane Grey’s accession as queen. She made for Framlingham Castle, where she gathered supporters and troops before marching in triumph to London to claim the thr

At the time that Suffragettes were on the march, and Lenin and Stalin were visiting London, at Queen’s Park Police Court in Glasgow two men were brought before the Sheriff in connection with one of the most useless burglaries ever to hit the district