THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones “I don’t think the story of

WELCOME

JUNE 2024

The BBC’s first female newsreader makes her debut

20 JUNE 1960

The Flight to Varennes backfires

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette attempt to flee Revolutionary France

17 JUNE 1631

The Taj Mahal, bathed in morning light and

18 JUNE 1858

British naturalist and geologist Charles Darwin, author of

The Reapers’ War breaks out

Catalans revolt against the Spanish crown

26 JUNE 1945

The United Nations emblem symbolises the dream of

The First Barbary War ends

The United States makes its first intervention overseas

“OJ Simpson’s celebrity meant that people were captivated by this story”

BEHIND THE NEWS

“It’s packed with jaw-dropping material you never see in mainstream galleries”

A CELEBRATION OF BRITISH FEMINISM

“Gurdip Singh Chaggar’s death shook the community deeply”

HIDDEN HISTORIES

LETTERS

LETTER OF THE MONTH Out of the blue

Q & A

A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

BOOKS

ANIMAL HISTORY “This is a moving exploration of

“Ancient Egypt survived because of the wise rulership of the Cleopatras”

LLOYD LLEWELLYN- JONES

Fear and loathing in Damascus

RYAN GINGERAS praises an unsparing account of an outbrea k of sectarian bloodletting that shaped the evolution of the modern Middle East

Sailing the high seas

Francesca de Tores (pictured) discusses Saltblood, her novel drawing on the real life of English pirate Mary Read

Dramatic tales

EMILY BRAND is gripped by a sweeping account of a trial that inspired England ’s first professiona l fema le writer, Aphra Behn

Feline adventures

Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the

Hope and humanity

The Martyr and the Red Kimono: A Fearless

Longing for the past

CULTURAL

ENCOUNTERS

EXHIBITION Fashion icon DIARY By Jonathan Wright, Danny

“I’m trying to tell a bit of the history of the Caribbean through my own family’s eyes”

BBC broadcaster CLIVE MYRIE tells us about his new travelogue, which takes in Cuba, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Barbados

Sowans

RECIPE

THIS MONTH’S TOP PODCAST PICKS

Listen ad-free at historyextra.com/podcast or with ads wherever you get your podcasts

A world of its own

EXPLORE… ORKNEY, SCOTLAND

Granada in five places

The last great Moorish capital of Al-Andalus became a Spanish imperial powerhouse. ELIZABETH DRAYSON picks five hidden gems of the Andalusian city

PRIZE CROSSWORD

Across 1 Name of German family who built

NEXT MONTH

July issue on sale 6 June 2024 

Eglantyne Jebb

1876–1928

1944 NORMANDY’S FORGOTTEN HEROES

Ferrying troops to the beaches wasn’t the only contribution sailors made during the Allied invasion of Normandy. In the first of two special features marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day, NICK HEWITT reveals how the Allied navies ended up fighting one of the most overlooked campaigns of the Second World War

The spearhead of the invasion

Hours before the assault on Normandy’s beaches got under way, British airborne troops launched an attack on targets in the French countr yside. At stake, writes Saul David, was the success of the entire D-Day landings

How the Vikings viewed the world

Old Norse poetry isn’t just a rip-roaring account of the exploits of gods and giants. It’s also an indispensable portal into how the Vikings understood the universe. Alicia Maddalena and Matthew Townend give us a whistle-stop tour of a glittering art form

WISH YOU WERE HERE!

They carved their names into statues of pharaohs and took cruises down the Nile. Mary Beard describes what happened when a party of elite Roman holidaymakers – led by the emperor Hadrian – descended on ancient Egypt’s tourist hotspots in AD 130

Banished. Exiled. Died… Widowed. Berated. Survived.

The ladies-in-waiting to Henry VIII’s wives were serious political operators with unparalleled access to the royal inner sanctum. Nicola Clark reveals how six of the most influential navigated the vipers’ nest that was the Tudor court

“Manliness and womanliness belong to man and woman alike”

As the Victorian age neared its end, a vibrant cultural movement emerged that flipped conventional notions of femininity and masculinity on their head. Jad Adams reveals how a new generation challenged stereotypical gender identities