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THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

Joanna Arman “Matilda was the ultimate forgotten queen:

WELCOME

CHRISTMAS 2023

ANNIVERSARIES

HELEN CARR highlights events that took place at Christmas in history

How do intractable conflicts come to an end?

BEHIND THE NEWS

Hard times: what centuries of cost-of-living crises reveal

BEHIND THE NEWS

MICHAEL WOOD ON…

THE GLORIES OF BUDDHIST ART

HIDDEN HISTORIES

KAVITA PURI on the price China paid in the Second World War

LETTERS

Historian and broadcaster Mary Beard, whose expertise, reader

Q&A

A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

2023 BOOKS OF THE YEAR

@SIMONMASKELLART It’s been another excellent year for history

Emily Brand

In exploring how thousands of Indigenous Americans experienced

James Holland

You can accuse me of fraternal bias, but

Kavita Puri

I spend a lot of time thinking about

Roger Moorhouse

Personal portrait A photo of author Daniel

Charlotte Lydia Riley

A Northern Wind: Britain 1962–65 (Bloomsbury) is the

Michael Wood

Nearly 60 years on, the Cultural Revolution still

Jeremy Black

My choices cover three very different topics, all

Tracy Borman

Hampton Court Palace is most famous as the

Hannah Skoda

I begin in the early Middle Ages with

Peter Frankopan

GETTY IMAGES One of the best things about

Hannah Cusworth

Nandini Das’s Courting India: England, Mughal India and

Rana Mitter

Sweeping in ambition and scale, Peter Frankopan’s The

ENCOUNTERS DIARY

DIARY By Jonathan Wright, Rebecca Franks and Eleanor

HISTORY ON THE AIRWAVES

SATHNAM SANGHERA (left) tells us about his new BBC Radio 4 series on tea and imperialism, exploring exploitation and international relations

A Christmas feast

RECIPES

ENCOUNTERS PODCASTS

Every issue we highlight a recent edition of our podcast. You can find it along with more than 1,700 previous episodes at our website: historyextra.com/podcast

Coastal treasure

EXPLORE… WHITEHAVEN, CUMBRIA

Budapest in five places

There’s much more to the city on the Danube than its hot springs and Cold War heritage. THOMAS LORMAN highlights five sites to visit in the Hungarian capital

CHRISTMAS QUIZ 2023

’Tis the season to test your knowledge of all things historical with our fiendish festive quiz

PRIZE CROSSWORD

Across 1/39 Nickname of legendary frontierswoman buried next

Here’s a selection of the exciting content that’s available on our website historyextra.com

Killers of the Flower Moon: the true story

Lady Hester Stanhope

1776–1839

“People like to tell themselves that the origins of American independence were non-violent. But it’s not true”

The Boston Tea Party is often cited as a model of peaceful civil protest. But, as Elinor Evans reveals, on the 250th anniversary of this milestone in America’s foundational story, it occurred against a backdrop of bloodshed

The long death of the Roman republic

Julius Caesar’s murder is often seen as the event that ushered in the age of emperors. Yet structural weaknesses had plagued Rome’s republic long before his death

THE RACE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

In 1969, everyone from Prince Michael of Kent to Billy Butlin competed in a dash between London and New York aboard tandems, sedan chairs and jump jets. Rachel Harris-Gardiner recalls a madcap forerunner of Race Across the World

THE MANY FACES OF NAPOLEON

As a major new film explores the life of the French emperor, Matt Elton asks historians Laura O’Brien and David Andress how we can make sense of the diverse and contradictory aspects of Napoleon’s character and career

The queen behind the veil

Matilda of Scotland, wife of Henry I, did perhaps more than any other figure to bridge the chasm between the Anglo-Saxons and their Norman conquerors. So why, asks Joanna Arman, has she been written out of history?

Walter Cowan Britain’s oldest commando

For some servicemen hardened by a long military career, death in battle is preferable to simply fading away in old age. JOSHUA LEVINE tells the story of one such man, a retired naval officer who leapt bravely back into the fray during the Second World War – at the age of 70

THE ROYAL MINT

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