The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
CHF 2024: Day 5 Cassino ’44, James Holland The searing sun gave way to cooler cloudier weather on Friday, the day of the military big beasts, James Holland, Max Hastings, Saul David and Anthony Beevor. James Holland’s account of the battle of Monte Cassino follows in...
CHF 2024: Day 4 Ukraine: Rhetoric & Reality: Francis Dearnley, David Knowles, Hanna Shelest, Dominic Nicholls The formidable team from the Telegraph’s Ukraine podcast attracted one of the biggest turnouts as they tackled the gap between rhetoric and reality in the...
Richard Cromwell had one of the strangest and saddest public lives in English history. An obscure country gentleman until he was 30, he then underwent a brief schooling in politics and government, before ruling as the second Protector for eight months. Vulnerable to...
CHF 2024: Day 3 The Chalk Stream, Feargal Sharkey Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey gave what might have been the most anticipated talk of the festival, telling the story of how England’s unique chalk streams are dying because of negligence by the privatised water...
CHF 2024: Day 2 The first two mornings of the festival are given over to the excellent schools’ programme. Busloads of youngsters descend on the site and get a special programme of talks and tours. The accompanying teachers all report game changing levels of new...
CHF 2024: Day 1 The festival site looked resplendent in the dappled June light, bouts of sunshine alternating with welcome cloud cover and a gentle breeze. Regular visitors will notice some changes to the layout. The Evelyn Partners tent has moved and is now a giant...
Izabela Czartoryska The joy of taking on a subject not previously covered by historians is that one can approach it with an open mind, uncovering and assessing virgin sources like an archaeologist. With subjects such as the Congress of Vienna or Napoleon one struggles...
Regency England – roughly speaking from the 1780s to the 1820s – has become identified as an age of elegance, romance and glamour. The immense success of the TV and film adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels and imitations such as Bridgerton, building on ideas already...
My teenage son and daughter reckon that most history books are dull and boring. And you know what…I tend to agree with them. No, please don’t stop reading. Don’t throw me and my books on the fire – I’m no history heretic (or perhaps I am). Like you, I love history. So...
Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of Rising TideMunich Wolf, by Rory Clements is set in 1935 Munich. When the body of a young English socialite is found, Kripo detective Sebastian Wolff is called in to solve the politically sensitive case. The...
