Why do civilisations that dominated their epoch fail? In an era of autocracy, climate change, the rise of AI and a first-hand understanding of how deadly pandemics can be, it’s a question that seems p

Have long wanted a chance to celebrate the Sex Pistols. Whatever you may make of Mr Rotten’s question to his last audience in America, “Ever got the feeling you’ve been had?”, the Pistols were great f

Did you know that Thomas Müntzer, leader of the German Peasants’ War in 1525, used a rainbow flag to rally his followers? It’s an aptly exuberant image for the radical charisma of Müntzer, and for the

One Bath location that Jane Austen wrote about – criticising the houses as being too small – is New King Street. Come to number 19, in which several rooms recreate interiors in a typical 18th-century

The Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London EC2

I had watched Richard III meet a bloody end at Bosworth, come face to face with a plague victim, stood in the shadow of a mighty trebuchet, and been put on trial for my life. And it was barely lunchti