We need to break free of our babyish way of looking at the past

Danny Bird Your book opens with the story of a woman named Solitude on Guadaloupe. Why did you choose to start with her and what can she tell us about the wider history of resistance among enslaved pe

I REMEMBER LOOKING IN THE BBC ARCHIVES for stories of the first arrivals of South Asians in the postwar years, and being surprised at how little programming had been made documenting the experiences o

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

I greatly enjoyed your interview with Alice Roberts about her new book Domination, (Books Interview, September), and its argument that the church was essentially Rome rebadged, with its structures and

I’ve just returned from three magical days in the Lake District. Craggy mountains, mist over the fells, and the gentle hum of a Herdwick sheep or two. I stayed near Hill Top, once home to Beatrix Pott

A reactionary radical’s case against progress