The pleasures and pains of life as a medieval monk

WELCOME

OCTOBER 2022

THREE THINGS I’VE LEARNED THIS MONTH

1. Historical hair hero As a bearded man

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

Hakim Adi “There is a significant and substantial

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

NEWS COMMENT ANNIVERSARIES HIDDEN HISTORIES

Re-evaluating Cromwell

New research suggests that Oliver Cromwell was more tolerant of alternative religious beliefs than had previously been thought. ANNA WHITELOCK reports on the fall-out from the news

Origins of the modern herpes virus may lie in the Bronze Age

Researchers found signs of herpes in DNA extracted

HISTORY IN THE NEWS

A selection of the stories hitting the history headlines

MICHAEL WOOD ON…

THE HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF

ANNIVERSARIES

HELEN CARR highlights events that took place in October in history

HIDDEN HISTORIES

KAVITA PURI explores lesser-known stories from our past

LETTERS

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Q&A

A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

When Richard rose again

Ten years ago a skeleton in a Leicester car park transformed our understanding of a medieval king, and turned him into a media sensation. Mike Pitts tells the remarkable story of the discovery of Richard III’s remains

WHAT WE LEARNED ABOUT RICHARD III

Five facts the excavation revealed about the medieval king

FLOATING HELL

Convictsexperienced notoriously miserable conditions in Georgian and Victorian Britain – and inmates of prison hulks endured the harshest of these deprivations. ANNA McKAY reveals the horrors of these “wicked Noah’s arks”

ABANDON SHIP!

Dramatic stories of escape attempts from prison hulks

HOW TO SURVIVE THE DARK AGES

The collapse of Roman rule in Britain left a vacuum that numerous powers competed to fill – but only a few realms endured. How did some thrive while others vanished or were vanquished? Thomas Williams offers six crucial survival tips for would-be rulers of early medieval kingdoms

ANCIENT EGYPST’S SACRED SCRIPT

The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 breathed life into a quest long deemed impossible: the reading of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Toby Wilkinson tells the tale of the two rivals who raced to be first to crack the code

Science’s global revolution

JamesPoskett introduces some brilliant thinkers who shatter the theory that, when it came to the scientific revolution of the 16th to 18th centuries, Europe was at the centre of the universe

The stomach for the fight

In the Third Reich, food was not a personal matter but a way for Germans to show their patriotism and sacrifice. Lisa Pine investigates how the Nazis micromanaged what was being served on the nation’s tables

The television age

In 1936, the BBC launched its new TV service – and changed British broadcasting at a stroke. DAVID HENDY charts the technological innovations that produced the so-called “magic rays” – and explores the delights they offered the viewing public

“There’s still this hangover that everything has to be seen through the prism of enslavement”

HAKIM ADI speaks to Rhiannon Davies about his wide-ranging study of the experiences of African and Caribbean people in Britain, from the height of the Roman empire to the modern day

Nation building

JANET HARTLEY finds much to admire in a new history of Russia, while wanting more that might help explain the “one nation” belief that led to the recent invasion of Ukraine

To the four corners of the world

CORMAC Ó GRÁDA commends an ambitious and accessible overview of the Irish diaspora, seen through the ordinary people who travelled to countries all over the world to find new lives

Marching to war

DAN JONES talks to Rhiannon Davies about his debut historical novel Essex Dogs, which follows a group of hard-bitten mercenaries fighting for their lives in the 1346 Crécy campaign

Political battles

ANDREW ROBERTS applauds a masterful exploration – required reading for any seeking high command – of why warfare and politics went hand in hand in the 20th century

Disunited kingdoms

ROBERT BLACKMORE assesses a top-down account of medieval England and France’s intertwined history

THE CLASSIC BOOK

Patricia Fara on a book that untangles colonial relationships

Dancing feet

SOCIAL Ballroom: A People’s History of Dancing by

A year in the life…

Winters in the World: A Journey through the

ALSO ON THE BOOKSHELF

MEMOIR The Interpreter’s Daughter by Teresa Lim (Michael

Abiding fascination

DIARY By Jonathan Wright and Rhiannon Davies PODCAST

Child’s play

When we think about Tutankhamun, we tend to

Tragic fate

Medusa in a late 16th-century painting. The gorgon

Forced into flight

Asian refugees from Uganda pictured after arriving in

Voice of the nation

Broadcaster David Dimbleby, whose new series explores the

HISTORY ON THE AIRWAVES

“We now know about the damage fame causes

Coastal stories

Britain is home to many hundreds of beaches

In the firing line

Today’s video game market is saturated with shoot

Back in focus

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter

For art’s sake

Damien Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in

THREE MORE PODCASTS ON MEDIEVAL RELIGION

A rip-roaring read Medieval autobiographies don’t come much

Castle on the cliffs

An 18th-century earl transformed this Scottish fortress into a Romantic’s dream of elegance and evocative style, with the help of one of the age’s greatest architects. BRIANNA ROBERTSON-KIRKLAND wanders through Robert Adam’s fabulous creation

At Europe’s crossroads

TRAVEL TO… BELGRADE, SERBIA

PRIZE CROSSWORD

Across 5 English political caricaturist – George III

NEXT MONTH

November issue on sale 29 September 2022

John Betjeman

1906–84

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