Cabinet of curiosities

Capturing the immediacy of fighting and the writhing bodies of soldiers, as well as keeping narrative clarity, proved enormously difficult for painters depicting battles before the advent of photography. Michael Hall reveals how they rose to the challenge

The urge to create model trains can be traced back to the genesis of the real railway. George Dent examines how what was once a pastime of the affluent few became a mass-market hobby that endures to this day.

Bob Cooper of Macclesfield, Cheshire remembers: From an early age, I have always loved reading and writing. My best subject at school was English to the detriment of maths, and I managed to become top

Cultural Crusader

In a John Behan bronze, collector Jacqueline O’Donovan, a child of the Irish diaspora, can sense the desperation of a starving people forced to flee their land

The worst loss of life among animals during the Second World War occurred before a single bomb had dropped on Great Britain. Official notices of advice to the public on how to prepare for air raids we