A Remarkable Railway Crash at Montparnasse in Paris (1895)
The day in 1895 when a locomotive ploughed through the wall of Montparnasse Station
Europe
A collection of 86 Posts
The Dazzling Countess of Castiglione (1865)
In the 1860s, 'La Divine Comtesse' was considered the most beautiful woman of her day
The Far Edges of the Ancient World with Owen Rees
Owen Rees leaves Athens and Rome behind and strikes out for the lesser known regions of the ancient world
Driving a Flock of Sheep through London (1926)
In the 1920s the last traces of old Dickensian London faded as the modern city grew at pace
Shakespeare’s Lost Years
Tinker? Tailor? Soldier? Spy? Howard Linskey looks back at the most mysterious phase of Shakespeare's life
Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz
József Debreczeni describes his arrival at the Auschwitz Extermination Camp in May 1944
The Construction of the Eiffel Tower (1888)
The Parisian skyline was changing in a strange and stirring way in July 1888 when Gustave Eiffel led a tour of his majestic new tower
The Vatican, the War and the Pope's Secret Bank
Yvonnick Denoël takes us back to the Second World War and the Vatican's efforts to secure their wealth
A Very Private Life – Nikolai Tolstoy Remembers Patrick O’Brian
We look back at the life of the 'greatest historical novelist of all time'
Martha Dodd: A Yank in the KGB
Brendan McNally describes the strange sequence of events that took a girl from Chicago to Nazi Berlin
Lord of the Flies and the Second World War
Dr Nicola Presley traces the hope and despair of William Golding's novel back to the years of war