Culture UK
Who are the British? Do they really drink tea, eat roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and never leave home without an umbrella? Find out more about true Brits; past and present, myth and legend, fact and fiction.
King Henry III’s Polar Bear
Until the 19th century, the Tower of London played host to a whole menagerie of exotic animals…
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling, poet and author, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 in recognition of his great body of work, including ‘The Jungle Book’, ‘Kim’ and the poem ‘If’.
Hannah Beswick, the Mummy in the Clock
Taphophobia, the fear of being buried alive and waking up in one’s own grave, is the stuff of nightmares. Hannah Beswick had a pathological fear of premature burial, after her brother John was found to be still alive at his own funeral…
Did King Arthur Exist?
Did the legendary King Arthur exist? Is there any documentary evidence to support the story of Arthur and his Camelot?
Whiskyopolis
Campbeltown, a small town on the Mull of Kintyre peninsula, was once one of the richest towns per capita in all of Scotland and an important centre of industry. And that industry was whisky…
Honiton Lace
Nestled in the beautiful county of Devon is Honiton, a small town that made its mark in British history as the home of Honiton lace…
Isotopes and Richard III
A skeleton discovered in a car park in Leicester in 2013 displayed spinal curvature as well as evidence of a violent death. Were these the remains of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king who was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field? Luckily, isotopic analysis was on hand to help resolve this issue…
Henry VIII’s Beard Tax
There’s a bit of a mystery about the beard tax imposed by Henry VIII, and it’s not just the mystery of why the heck anyone would want to put a tax on facial hair…
