BBC History Magazine

"When we think of the First World War – in Britain at least – the images that come to mind tend to be those of the western front: from the desolate, muddy battlefields to the privations of the trenches. But there was another, equally titanic, campaig

While our piece on Victorian animal cruelty contains many sad tales, it also features some quirkier titbits. I’m desperate to find out more about the “sheep fond of practical jokes” (page 41). I was intrigued to read, in this month’s Q&A, that follow

“Exploring women’s diaries was like plunging into a rich sea of struggle, sex, spiky humour, adventure and agony. What struck me was how often the battles of the past echo those we still fight today.” Sarah Gristwood reveals what diaries can tell us

I wanted to write in to say how moved I was by Hannah Skoda’s article on the history of breastfeeding (An Act of Love, February). I became a mum myself quite recently, and wasn’t ready for how breastfeeding can feel lonely, frustrating, beautiful and

EDITORIAL Editor Rob Attar robertattar@historyextra.com Deputy editor Matt Elton mattelton@historyextra.com Senior production editor Spencer Mizen Production editor Jon Bauckham Section editor Rebecca Franks Staffwriter Danny Bird Picture editor Sama

Serbian nationalist student Gavrilo Princip guns down Franz Ferdinand, the heir presumptive to the AustroHungarian throne. A month later Austria declares war on Serbia, triggering a domino effect that will draw much of Europe into war. Austria-Hungar

Although she is often hailed as a feminist icon, Elizabeth I was deeply conventional in her views of the female sex. In the most famous of her speeches, delivered as the Armada threatened England’s shores, she regretfully observed: “I know I have the

On the evening of 7 May 1945, Lancashire housewife Nella Last and her husband, Will, gathered around the radio with their neighbours. They agreed that if the announcer said the king was to speak, they knew that the big day had come at last. When, ins

A 19th-century Cornish clergyman once impersonated a mermaid to see whether people could be fooled into believing such a creature existed. The eccentric Robert Hawker donned a wig, covered his legs in oilskin and swam out to a rock in the sea where h

Japanese poet Long before the diary format was familiar in the western world, Heian period Japan (AD 794– 1185) saw an explosion of what was in many ways a form of diary writing. One of its most notable exponents was poet and court attendant Sei Shōn

Was The Ghost Theatre inspired by real-life Elizabethans? It was inspired by a 1602 court case in which nobleman Henry Clifton accused the owner of the Blackfriars Theatre, Henry Evans, of kidnapping his son. The boy was snatched in the street to be

A remarkable account of the early history of female liberation in Britain, this intricate story weaves together the many luminaries and intellectuals of 18th-century life. We meet Elizabeth Montagu, Hester Thrale, Ann Yearsley and Catherine Macaulay,

Any mention of debtors’ prisons immediately makes me think of Charles Dickens. His father’s incarceration devastated the family – a humiliation later immortalised by the writer in Little Dorrit. But, as Alexander Wakelam explained on the podcast, Dic

The countries you explore in the latest series of Bettany Hughes’ Treasures of the World – Azerbaijan, Georgia, Estonia, Albania and Bulgaria – were all within the Soviet sphere. Do they represent unexplored territory in archaeological terms? There w

1 Western-most of the three ancient cities of Tripolitania, part of what is now Libya (8) 5 Ancient Egyptian god, representing both fertility and the afterlife (6) 10 Viral illness known to Hippocrates in the fifth century BC, now prevented by the MM

Book worth £30 for 4 winners In her latest book, historian Josephine Quinn challenges the traditional narrative that western civilisation was founded in Greece and Rome, arguing that it was instead the product of diverse global interactions spanning

Across 1 Piracy 4 Philippa 10 Lancaster 11 Chirk 12 Danelaw 13 Iceland 14 Nepos 16 Graf Spee 19 Corvette 20 Verdi 21 Linkman 23 Morocco 25 Ducat 26 Elizabeth 27 Space Age 28 Levant Down 1 Paladin 2 Ronin 3 Charles IV 5 Hermitage 6 Locke 7 Privateer 8

Here’s a selection of the exciting content that’s available on our website historyextra.com On 22 November 1963, President John F Kennedy was killed in Dallas. But was it part of a wider plot? In an article inspired by our Conspiracy podcast series,