History Magazine
Powder Monkeys
Admiral Lord Nelson’s decisive victory at the Battle of Trafalgar is well known. What is less well known is that without the powder monkeys, the brave young boys who ferried the gunpowder to the guns, this great victory could not have happened.
Cecily of York
Cecily of York, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, is far less well-known than her older sister Elizabeth, wife of Henry VII and the first Tudor queen. Yet her own story remains fascinating, intertwined not only with the bloody conflict known as the Wars of the Roses and the subsequent rise of the Tudor dynasty, but also with great personal tribulations…
The Great British Biscuit
Rich tea, jammie dodger or chocolate digestive? Garibaldi, bourbon or shortbread? Fancy or plain, biscuits are as much a part of British culture as fish and chips. Whether you like to dunk or nibble delicately around the edges, what would a cup or mug of tea be without a biscuit?
The Christmas Truce 1914: When Peace Briefly Reigned on Earth
“And the guns fell silent on Christmas Eve … ” By December 1914, the war that was supposed to be over by Christmas was clearly far from it. Two entrenched armies were facing one another across No-Man’s Land. And then incredibly, on Christmas Eve carol singing broke out in the trenches. Slowly the two sides emerged and approached each other across No-Man’s Land…
Dickens and Debt: the story of London’s Marshalsea Prison
Charles Dickens’ novel ‘Little Dorrit’ is set within the Marshalsea Prison, where his own father was incarcerated and a place he knew well. This notorious, 500 year old prison was home to debtors, pirates, smugglers and other undesirables…