All About History

SCAN TO JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER How should we tackle the most confronting stories of history? As we looked to mark the 80th anniversary of the start of Operation Barbarossa and one of the most violent chapters of World War II this issue, I’ve been thinki

Released in a limited number of theatres, George Lucas’ Stars Wars quickly became a pop-culture phenomenon and a blockbuster hit. The film received critical acclaim and was celebrated for its groundbreaking visual effects, earning a total of six Acad

Roman chroniclers identified both hard and soft cheese, as well as varieties made from not just the milk of cows and goats but camels, assess, horses, hares and fawns. Something of a foodie, Pliny the Elder – writing in the 1st century CE – singled o

Switzerland is renowned for its love of cheese. Archaeological evidence suggests that cheese has been made in the Swiss Alps since the Iron Age, during the first millennium BCE. Traditional Swiss cheeses include Emmental and Appenzeller, but it is Gr

In the Neolithic period, cheese was a crucial part of the human diet, as milk was full of essential fats, proteins and minerals needed to survive. However, milk would quickly ferment in warm climates due to the lactic acid present, causing it to sepa

JONATHAN TRIGG Jonathan Trigg is a military historian specialising in the Eastern Front during World War II. His books include the Through German Eyes series, with the latest being Barbarossa Through German Eyes. In 1939 Hitler’s Germany had signed a

CHEDDAR, SOMERSET, UK The Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company is the only remaining producer of the iconic and perennially popular Cheddar cheese in the village of Cheddar, Somerset. It has been devoted to preserving the traditional and authentic art of che

DR ALEX KAY Alex Kay is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Potsdam and lifetime Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has published five acclaimed books on Nazi Germany, including The Making of an SS Killer (2016). His latest book,

Shortly after completing the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact on 23 August 1939, Adolf Hitler said: “My pact was only meant to stall for time… to Russia will happen just what I have practised in Poland – we will crush the Soviet Union.” Operation Barba

It seems clear that while Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, had been preparing for and expecting the non-aggression pact he had signed with Hitler to collapse, he had not expected it to happen at 3am on

With the end of World War I came the Treaty of Versailles. Among many things limiting Germany were restrictions to its military rights, preventing it from producing armoured vehicles except for a few designated for security. To get around this, the G

From 1811 to 1820, Prince George, the eldest son of King George III and Queen Charlotte, was appointed as Prince Regent of the United Kingdom on behalf of his father. The king, who had suffered from recurring bouts of mental illness and breakdowns, h

The jinn (commonly called genies in the West) are taken seriously and regarded as real, tangible beings by a large segment of the world’s population. Millions of people in Arab North Africa, the Middle East and other Islamic regions have been brought

Michael Livingston is a professor of military and medieval history and two-time winner of the Distinguished Book Award from the International Society of Military History. He is the secretary general for the United States Commission on Military Histor

Perhaps the most famous image of a genie is Disney’s blue-skinned, wise cracking entity voiced by Robin Williams that appeared in the 1992 animated version of Aladdin. This version of a jinn, living inside a magical lamp and granting three wishes, su

PROFESSOR ELIZABETH SCHAFER Schafer is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has written extensively on the performance history of Shakespeare’s plays and about women directors of Shakespeare’s work. The

Sitting just outside of the City walls and therefore outside of its authority, The Theatre was one of the first playhouses to cater to the new theatre crowd. It was built by James Burbage, whose son was a player, and would be the main stage for the L

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was one of the most recognisable men in the world. As the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, he represented the British monarchy for almost 70 years and was the longest-serving consort of a reigning British monarch until

Shortly after dawn on 11 September 1697 a high-ranking Ottoman prisoner named Cafar Pasha was brought before Prince Eugene of Savoy, the commander-in-chief of the Hapsburg Imperial army. The prince declared that if Pasha did not immediately divulge t

The Ottoman field guns on the far bank of the Tisza open up on the Austrian army, but because they’re out of range they are ineffective. In contrast, the Imperial guns wreak great havoc on the Ottoman infantry, causing substantial casualties and thro

On 21 October 1805, the naval forces of Napoleon Bonaparte and his Spanish allies faced the Royal Navy, commanded by Admiral Lord Nelson, off the coast of Trafalgar, Spain. For five hours the battle raged but the British forces were able to annihilat

Book Film TV Podcast Games Other Andra Day shines as the legendary jazz singer in this chaotic biopic Certificate: 15 Director: Lee Daniels Cast: Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund Released: Out now Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, first reco

David Castleton, author of Church Curiosities: Strange Objects and Bizarre Legends, is always on the lookout for the quirky and unusual. He’s been on a journey back through British history, combing our churches and churchyards for weird artefacts, in

Fact versus fiction on the silver screen Director: Joseph L Mankiewicz Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison Country: Egypt Released: 1963 VERDICT: Visually it veers from facts, but the story holds together 01The early part of the

The word ‘tiropita’ translates to ‘cheese pie’ in English • 12 sheets filo pastry, defrosted• 3 eggs• 500g feta cheese• 1 tsp black pepper• Olive oilOptional• 250g ricotta or cottage cheese The origins of tiropita, a popular Greek cheese-and-egg fill