JOHN DOWLAND IS MY NAME: musician, composer, greatest lute player of my age in Europe, some say, when in England Elizabeth and James were on the throne. I died in 1626 when I was 63 and was buried on

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

IT WAS THE summer of 1985, and Johnny Marr was a man out of time. Three years earlier, while still a teenager, the guitarist had co-founded the Smiths in Manchester, England, with vocalist Morrissey (

CARA slumped at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee. She was surrounded by childhood memories, and the same faded wallpaper and unmatched dishes that she had grown up with. It seemed appropriate th

BACK IN THE BAND WE PREDICT A RIOT ...

Joan Armatrading refused to change her name, refused to sing covers and baffled session pros with her unique timing. Here, she tells the story of her uncompromising debut album.