The golden age of smuggling

One answer to this question is relatively straightforward. For much of Greek history, people living near the coast or on the islands ate plenty of fish and seafood – not out of obsession, but out of p

Crime has always been popular with family historians. We all love a rogue (up to a point, anyway), and finding out you’re related to one can lead to some interesting avenues of research. The more seri

Roger Morgan-Grenville celebrates the shapeshifting glories of Britain’s sea paths, evanescent byways revealed by the tides

I n 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. That, at least, is what the famous rhyme tells us. Memorising such dates is a common experience of being taught history – a cliché superbly lampooned by the w

On the morning of 4 August 1577, the good Christian folk of Bungay assembled in St Mary’s Church for their regular Sunday service. But more sinister forces were also gathering in the Suffolk town. Dar

Essex: A county bounded by water, flat, marshy and called by some the “graveyard of witches”. Between 1500 and 1800 over 1,000 men, women and children were executed for the crime of witchcraft in the