France in technicolour

WELCOME MAY 2024

Sometimes it takes a scandal for progress to

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

Zeinab Badawi “When you are taught Africa’s history

ANNIVERSARIES

DANNY BIRD highlights events that took place in May

“It’s rare that a television show actually changes people’s lives”

Since it first hit TV screens back in 2009, Horrible Histories has brought Terry Deary and Martin Brown’s hugely successful series of books to an entire generation of children. As it marks its 15th anniversary, MATT ELTON speaks to three members of the team behind the show that mixes comedy songs, gruesome deaths and a talking rat

From Beatles lyrics to Hindu scripture, translation is a true library of the world

MICHAEL WOOD ON… THE POWER OF DIALOGUE

England’s first trade mission to Mughal India wasn’t a great success

HIDDEN HISTORIES

LETTERS

LETTER OF THE MONTH Unsolved mysteries I love

Q&A

A selection of historical conundrums answered by exper ts

The empire’s last hurrah?

It featured exotic pavilions, sporting spectacles and even a replica of Tutankhamun’s tomb. But, as Matthew Parker explains, when the British Empire Exhibition opened its doors in Wembley a century ago, it also spoke of a superpower in decline

The forgotten kingdom

William of Normandy sailed across the Channel and conquered England in 1066 – or at least that’s how the story goes. Here, Sophie Thérèse Ambler and James Morris reveal how one nor thern stronghold remained untouched for another 26 years 

Beethoven’s ode to peace

From the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has served as a symbol of hope and unity for 200 years. Bronwen Everill examines the piece’s legacy through five key per formances

HOW POPERY!

HIS MAJESTY KING MOB!

The history of witchcraft

Marion Gibson, who is teaching our new HistoryExtra Academy course, shares five surprising facts about witch trials in the early modern era

THE INVISIBLE ROMANS

Rome’s slaves were brutalised, mocked, exploited – or simply ignored. Yet, writes Guy de la Bédoyère, the Roman empire could hardly have functioned without the labours of this captive population

Sex, sadism and sugared death

Rosalind Crone investigates eight scandals that shocked Victorian Britain, from a killer-sweet scare to an adulter y trial that threatened to bring down the prime minister

BOOKS

GLOBAL “The transformation in knowledge, trade and imperial

“It is absolutely important to look at African history through the lens of African people themselves”

ZEINAB BADAWI talks to Danny Bird about her ambitious new book, which tells the story of the African continent and the civilisations that have shaped it

Jesus’s lucky break?

CHRISTIANITY

Europe’s taste for power

GLOBAL

FROM FACT TO FICTION

Fevered existence

Healers in the hell of the gulag

SOVIET UNION

Golden oldies

MUSIC

A hangman’s warning

19TH CENTURY

ENCOUNTERS

Late masterpieces

“Understanding how China got here, and what its motivations are, requires looking at history”

Writer and broadcaster MISHA GLENNY tells us about his new series on the forces and ideas that have shaped modern-day China

Tudor jumbles

RECIPE

This month’s top podcast picks

An 18th- century radical Firebrand, feminist and philosopher

A Cumbrian work of art

EXPLORE… MUNCASTER CASTLE, CUMBRIA

Warsaw in five places

The ‘phoenix city’ has experienced might and destruction. ALEXANDRA RICHIE highlights five spots that reveal intriguing aspects of the Polish capital’s history

PRIZE CROSSWORD

Across 1 African kingdom conquered by warriorqueen Njinga

NEXT MONTH

June issue on sale 9 May 2024

Alfred Russel Wallace

Naturalist, explorer and television presenter Steve Backshall chooses

The Wallace collection

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BBC History Magazine

WARNER LEISURE HOTELS

warnerhotels.co.uk/history

CHALKE

Gardeners’ World magazine

bit.ly/GW_May24

THE ROYAL MINT

royalmint.com

HURTIGRUTEN

Hurtigruten.co.uk