With a story as dramatic and tragic as the Gothic novels she wrote, Charlotte Brontë’s life was not only fascinating, it was inspiring. The main force driving her family, Charlotte encouraged her sisters as poets and novelists, stepped in to support the family after her brother’s death, travelled Europe, and using her own experiences, crafted trailblazing female characters. In this extract from Charlotte Brontë: A Life, you can catch a glimpse of the unique life that inspired her stories.
Sometimes there’s nothing we love more than to delve into the past, whether it is to read about one of our favourite authors, to take a trip through our great British heritage, or in remembrance of turbulent times.
To this day, the Ministry of Defence responds to all enquiries about submarine operations with a simple phrase: “The Ministry of Defence does not comment on submarine operations.” Written with privileged access to both documents and personnel, The Silent Deep is the first authoritative history of the British submarine service since the end of the […]
In an extract from Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads, author and activist Benedict Rogers recalls his unceremonious exit from Burma in 2011.
What better way to celebrate the up-coming All Hallow’s Eve than with a guide to some of our favourite witches in literature – from the conjuring of Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters to the blue spit of Roald Dahl’s Grand High Witch of the World. “A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, […]
Read an extract from The Book of Magic, Brian Copenhaver’s new anthology of the history of the tradition of magic from antiquity to the enlightenment, in which seventeenth century witch hunter Matthew Hopkins describes his methods of discovering witches in his Essex village.
In The Face of Britain, art historian and journalist Simon Schama explores the history of British portraiture, and unveils the secrets of some of the nation’s best loved works of art. In this extract, Schama tells the story of Jane Morris (nee Burden), and the artists infatuated by her. It was not the wandering armadillos, the kangaroos, the […]
Long have authors had their stories reimagined by the magic of lighting, actors and mise en scène. From To Kill a Mockingbird to the recently released Suffragette, film adaptations have always made for gripping films, and here, we look at the latest books to come to the big screen.
In The Great British Dream Factory, historian Dominic Sandbrook looks at the strange, diverse and wonderful creative industries that have sprung up in Britain since the end of empire. In this extract, we find out about the unlikely beginnings of the Black Sabbath guitarist’s unusual playing style…
In The Face of Britain, art historian and journalist Simon Schama explores the history of British portraiture, and unveils the secrets of some of the nation’s best loved works of art. In this extract, Schama tells the story of Christina Broom (nee Livingston) – Britain’s first female press photographer – and her photography of the Suffragette Movement at the beginning of the twentieth century.
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