Exaggerating her beetling monobrow and wispy dark moustache in self-portraits, the artist Frida Kahlo was a female force to be reckoned with, unafraid to pour her heart onto the canvas. Only last autu

For 11 or 12 days in 1654, Anna Trapnel, a self-styled prophet from Poplar, lay in a stupor in an inn near Whitehall. With her eyes shut and her body unmoving, she spoke and sang prophecies to the cro

Alice Loxton EleanorA 200-mile walk in search of England’slost queen352pp. Pan Macmillan. £22. Many are commemorated in stone, but few so grandly as Eleanor of Castile (d. 1290). Following her unexpec

Samurai rose to be global emblems of honour and courage, but their story doesn’t always match the myths they told about themselves, as a British Museum exhibition shows

IT MAY BE 2026, BUT MANY HARD-WON RIGHTS FOR WOMEN ARE UNDER THREAT. WE ASK GROUNDBREAKING ACTIVISTS, STORYTELLERS AND A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER HOW TO MAINTAIN HOPE AND EFFECT CHANGE, EVEN WHEN THE WAY FORWARD IS UNCLEAR

AS TRAVELLERS SEEK ESCAPE AND CONNECTION, A NEW WAVE OF TRIPS IS OFFERING BOOK-THEMED ITINERARIES WITH A SENSE OF PLACE