A worker's eye-view of ancient Rome
We know plenty about the lives of rich and powerful Romans – men such as Julius Caesar and Augustus. But Kim Bowes is more interested in those who worked for a living: the so-called 90 per cent. In th...
5 Maj 38min
Niccolò Machiavelli: life of the week
From obscure beginnings to torture, exile, and desperate reinvention, the biography of Renaissance diplomat and author Niccolò Machiavelli reads like political theatre at its most brutal. In this epis...
4 Maj 49min
How to pull off a Georgian dinner party
A dinner party in a beautifully decorated Georgian dining room might sound sophisticated, even romantic – but planning such events was not for the faint-hearted. Amy Boyington advises Lauren Good on h...
3 Maj 33min
The Black Death: a global contagion
The Black Death is remembered as one of the most devastating catastrophes in human history – a pandemic that swept across continents and killed millions. But where did it come from? How did it travel ...
2 Maj 34min
George Orwell's final chapter
Did you know that George Orwell only found national acclaim as an author in the final years of his life, as his health was worsening? Or that, with the growing prospect of death looming increasingly l...
30 Apr 40min
Was Elizabeth II's reign a golden age?
When the late Queen acceded to the throne in 1952, Britain, though left bankrupt and reeling from the Second World War, was still a major global power. By the end of Elizabeth II’s reign in 2022 – the...
28 Apr 37min
Johannes Vermeer: life of the week
Johannes Vermeer is now regarded as one of the leading lights of the Dutch Golden Age, and indeed one of the greatest artists of all time. But in his own lifetime he was hardly known outside his own c...
27 Apr 42min
When did Roman Britain really end?
How did England – and Englishness – emerge from the final days of Roman Britain? And what separated Englishness from Britishness? Emeritus professor Nicholas Higham –whose latest book is How England ...
26 Apr 32min
