Q&a

Composite figment of imaginations The writer credited with composing the Iliad and the Odyssey, and often regarded as one of the most important authors of all time, is to my mind the most overrated hi

The normal diet of gladiators was vegetarian, but not through choice or principle. The rations in their barracks consisted of sagina, which literally translates as ‘stuffing’. It was a barley and bean

Maya artefacts are something you’d probably expect to find in an archaeological site in Mexico or hidden in ruins buried deep in the Central American jungle. A startling number of them turn up in Euro

Danny Bird You open your book by recounting a chance visit to an old mosque in Cyprus. What was so significant about that moment? Tharik Hussain Nothing changed for me on the day itself, because I kne

PROUST’S FAMOUS NOVEL IS CALLED IN SEARCH of Lost Time, and isn’t that the key to why we love history? It’s the urge to recover the lost past. Can we get beyond the mysterious veil to real events and

Opened at last After 20 years under construction, ...