Marian Boswall on how the old tradition of wassailing might actually benefit orchards

‘Green sickness’, also known as the ‘disease of virgins’ – a diagnosis applied mainly to teenage girls from the 16th to the 19th centuries – is one of the most puzzling conditions in the history of me

From George Stubbs’s golden vision of the labourer’s place in society to Ford Madox Brown’s heroically monumental celebration of manual labour, artists gave individual interpretations of work, as Michael Hall reveals

As winter relinquishes its grip, Tessa Waugh enjoys a copybook meet, with convivial chat, springy turf and good sport – while the real hunting aficionados demonstrate their teleporting skills

You wouldn’t guess from the cover design—three songbirds silhouetted over swatches of picturesque Englishness—but Catherine Clarke’s A History of England in 25 Poems hits one of its sweet spots with a

The piece I’d never part with