The soundtrack to Japanese politics was once “quiet, calm, ambient”, says The Economist. No longer. New prime minister Sanae Takaichi, a one-time heavy-metal drummer, is setting a new beat that is “br

THE WOMAN WHO RULED THE VATICAN

After a years-long battle to secure her inheritance as heiress of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Maria Theresia (pictured above) arrived in Prague, the capital of what was then Bohemia, clutching the

Danny Bird What was the genesis of Legenda? Was there a moment when you knew you had to write this book? Janina Ramirez From the start of my academic career, I learned from [Palestinian-American liter

In winter, Japan’s northernmost main island Hokkaido is a place of snow-covered forests and white-crested volcanoes mirrored in glacial lakes. It’s also the land of the Ainu, an Indigenous people intimately connected to the environment through their hunting, fishing and storytelling traditions, and animist beliefs

In March 1457, a short, slight widow left Pembroke Castle to embark on a 100-mile journey across territories stalked by civil war and pestilence. Her husband had died only four months earlier, carried