Part of the appeal of history is in the desire to separate fact from fiction. And nowhere have these two become more muddled than in the legend of the Holy Grail. Indeed, whether such a thing ever existed in the first place has been debated for 2,000 years, without anyone coming close to answering the question. So why does it continue to fascinate? How did the legend originate? And how has it been appropriated by everyone from knights to Nazis over the centuries? The mystery unravels from page 24.
Sticking with the unlikely, we’ve got the story of the most remarkable car race ever (p74) - think Wacky Races without roads and you’re halfway there. And there’s more historical fact than you might imagine behind the 2006 movie 300. We uncover the truth behind the Battle of Thermopylae on page 68.