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

Revisiting European countries comes with the need to seek out new places, campsites, attractions and food – that was pretty much the to do list for our six-week trip to Belgium, Germany and the Nether

An old man lives at the bottom of my garden. His name is Robert Barkus, or Bakehouse, or Bagust. Nobody is quite sure. But I often sense him around when I’m gardening, and I’ve found out a fair bit ab

Shop of the month Open Tuesday to Saturday, ...

I was shocked in a London hostelry recently to discover that our once-proud nation has been reduced to forming an orderly queue for drinks at the pub bar. It hasn’t happened in my local yet, and all i

Johannes Vermeer brightened his native Delft with luminous pictures of women caught in intimate moments, but the serenity of his work, of which he produced remarkably little, is at odds with a life mired in debt, as Carla Passino discovers