In 1978, Soviet geologists stumbled upon a family living in a remote part of Siberia. Having moved there to escape religious persecution, they hadn’t interacted with the outside world for decades.

Alice Loxton EleanorA 200-mile walk in search of England’slost queen352pp. Pan Macmillan. £22. Many are commemorated in stone, but few so grandly as Eleanor of Castile (d. 1290). Following her unexpec

Twenty six years ago, Italian writer and gardener Umberto Pasti fell asleep beneath a remote fig tree on a stony hillside facing the Atlantic Ocean, 40 miles south of Tangier. When he awoke, he knew t

Review of reviews: Books

Rue des Colonels Renard, near the Arc de Triomphe in the 17th arrondissement, is situated in a well-heeled part of Paris, featuring fashionable apartments at vertigo-inducing rents. In the late 1930s

The borders in Jānis Raubiška and Martin Paley’s garden look as though they are having a party. Planting designer Jānis says he doesn’t have any time for pastels – he finds them boring. Fireworks are