Historian Steven Gunn uncovers what thousands of fatal accidents can tell us about everyday existence in 16th-century England ...

Physicist Frank Close traces how British science – and fear of a Nazi bomb – lit the fuse for the nuclear age ...

Traversing the landscape of medieval Europe, they sang of longing, power and – whether implicitly or explicitly – sex. They moved from castle to court, debated morals and aphrodisiacs, and ...

Almost as soon as they were able to navigate the world on their own two feet, children were expected to obey, work and prepare for a life of duty, whether as farmers, soldiers, citizens or mothers.

This is how a royal Frankish dynasty turned flowing locks into a political weapon, and why cutting them could mean deadly exile ...

Behind the myth of the Minotaur lies the ancient Minoan civilisation – a culture steeped in ritual, rich in symbolism, and obsessed with the power of bulls ...

When Old Norse explorers reached North America, they made history. But their brief, violent encounter with its indigenous peoples shows how cultural collisions could end in chaos. Historian and Viking ...