Journalism
The dinosaur capital of the world
Jesus and the dinosaurs are living happily alongside one another in a town in Canada – but can the peace last, asks Tom Holland. Drumheller is definitely the place to visit if you like dinosaurs. […]
Read MoreDinosaurs aren’t extinct
You wouldn’t know it from Jurassic World, but tyrannosaurs had coats of fuzz and the same molecular structure as a hen. Forget about cloning dinosaurs, writes the historian Tom Holland. They’re still us — they’re […]
Read MoreDinomania: the history of an obsession
They made the Victorians shudder with awe, but before long dinosaurs were loved mostly by cartoonists and children. Then came a series of discoveries that began a dazzling chapter in the history of science and […]
Read MoreAuctioning a Diplodocus
It is hard to think of a more remarkable bargain than “Misty”, the diplodocus that went under the hammer this week for £400,000. The chance to own a 17-metre dinosaur does not come along every […]
Read MoreReview: Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame by Benita Eisler
Byron’s memoirs were burnt by friends terrified of what they might contain. Ever since, biographers have been trying to make up for the loss. The attractions of the challenge are obvious. Not only was Byron […]
Read MoreReview: Augusta Leigh: Byron’s Half-Sister by Michael and Melissa Bakewell
Celebrities, we have it on good authority, are like candles in the wind. As it is the nature of candles to illumine what would otherwise be dark, this means that within every biography of a […]
Read MoreIn praise of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Considering the habitual British distaste for foreigners and learning musical instruments, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was a brave title for a novel. But Louis de Bernieres clearly knew what he was doing: four years after its […]
Read MoreThe resurrection of the Caliphate
Read the full article on the Financial Times website [paywall]
Read MoreWhat Scotland and England share
The Tarbat Peninsula, a spit of land sticking out from the northernmost Scottish Highlands, seems an unlikely spot for a revolution. At its tip stands a lighthouse, built by Robert Louis Stevenson’s uncle back in […]
Read MoreThe Christian roots of secularism
As the first decade of the third Christian millennium draws to an increasingly troubled close, the verdict of historians on its significance can already be anticipated. Two themes will predominate. The first, exemplified by the […]
Read MoreThe World of the Vikings
To the Byzantines, the lands of the distant north were self-evidently hellish. So terrible were the winters that even wolves, when they crossed the frozen seas, were reported to go blind with the cold. Unsurprisingly, […]
Read MoreRoman Britain: Victories and/or Beneficiaries
‘Roman Britain,’ I asked a friend of mine, a committed pacifist and the veteran of endless marches against the war in Iraq, ‘a Good or Bad Thing?’ ‘Oh, good,’ my friend answered, not even deigning […]
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