A few years ago, we bought my father a sundial. It was a decent 18th-century style reproduction in lead – something he had wanted for a very long time – and then, inevitably, he asked me to help him s

The King’s Observatory, Kew, London The home of Robbie Brothers

A cut-crystal bed, with associated mirrors and throne, sparkled at auction earlier this month, but no glamour could beat the prize that was the Union Flag flown by HMS Spartiate at the Battle of Trafalgar

The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the ...

The piece I’d never part with

‘The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, it seems like an awful waste of space,’ wrote the American astronomer and author Carl Sagan in his book, Contact. Ever since humans first huddled