I had watched Richard III meet a bloody end at Bosworth, come face to face with a plague victim, stood in the shadow of a mighty trebuchet, and been put on trial for my life. And it was barely lunchti

With Hallowe’en out of the way, Christmas is the next big ghostly occasion in the UK traditional calendar. But what, one may wonder, of the rest of Europe? Ghost hunter Peter Underwood called Europe “

There are many occupations described in historical documents or censuses that almost no one is gainfully employed doing any more. People my age may remember certain jobs that have gone by the wayside.

Warm, spicy and special, gingerbread is a favourite festive treat. Tchaikovsky’s classic Christmas ballet The Nutcracker features an army of gingerbread men. And gingerbread houses, which originated i

There is something pleasant in the thought that joviality will reign to-morrow in such grim homes as London workhouses,” a reporter for the West Londoner wrote on Christmas Eve 1870. “There will be an

Did you know that Thomas Müntzer, leader of the German Peasants’ War in 1525, used a rainbow flag to rally his followers? It’s an aptly exuberant image for the radical charisma of Müntzer, and for the