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WELCOME APRIL 2024

“ When we think of the First World

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

Sarah Gristwood THIS PAGE: BBC/GETTY IMAGES; ON THE

ANNIVERSARIES

DANNY BIRD highlights events that took place in April in history

The War of the Pacific breaks out

5 APRIL 1879

Oscar Wilde is arrested for ‘gross indecency’

5 APRIL 1895

THE CONVERSATION

EXPERTS DEBATE HISTORY’S BIGGEST ISSUES

“The Victorians saw the post office as a highly reliable local institution”

BEHIND THE HEADLINES

“ In our current age of fake news, myths about the past are taking wider hold ”

MICHAEL WOOD ON… 

“ This shows how one individual can change the course of history ”

HIDDEN HISTORIES

LETTERS

An 1852 portrait of the princes in the

Q & A

A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

BOOKS

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

“The Black gay movement has always been a broad church”

JASON OKUNDAYE talks to Matt Elton about his new book charting the political, social and sexual lives of Black gay men who lived in London in the second half of the 20th century

The scourge of civilisations

THE WEST

Discovering the startling truth

SCIENCE & RELIGION

Queens of the blues

SOCIAL

Stealing the show

Mat Osman (pictured) discusses The Ghost Theatre, his tale of an Elizabethan theatre troupe that used stolen children

The world in a corner of England

LOCAL HISTORY

ENCOUNTERS

Rioters throw stones at troops in the Bogside

A sustainable, historical three - course feast

RECIPES

Impossible escapes

THREE HISTORYEXTRA PODCAST EPISODES ON IMPRISONMENT

A giant-sized enigma

EXPLORE… CERNE ABBAS GIANT, DORSET

Split in five places

This city on the Adriatic – founded in a Roman palace-citadel – has a rich history. MARCUS TANNER chooses five sites that shed light on the Croatian port’s past

PRIZE CROSSWORD

Across 1 Western-most of the three ancient cities

NEXT MONTH

May issue on sale 11 April 2024

Colin Gubbins

1896 –1976

THE DARK MIRROR

In both size and ferocity, the fighting on the eastern front from 1914–17 outdid even the western front. So why, asks Nick Lloyd, has eastern Europe become the forgotten theatre of the First World War?

FIVE THINGS YOU (PROBABLY ) DIDN’ T KNOW ABOUT…

The Elizabethans

Mad, bad and dangerous to know?

Lord Byron in objects

BEASTLY VICTORIANS

They rescued mutilated dogs, prosecuted bull baiters and denounced the slaughter of exotic birds. As the RSPCA marks its 200th anniversary, Helen Cowie reveals how campaigners took the fight to animal abusers in the 19th century

ANCIENT ARMAGEDDON

Nicky Nielsen tells the story of a battle that supercharged the rise of Egypt’s greatest warrior-pharaoh – at a city that would for centuries be linked with the end of the world

Life beyond the margins

From meditations on grief to musings on motherhood, diaries can reveal a great deal about women’s lives over the centuries. Sarah Gristwood turns the pages of some of history’s most fascinating – and overlooked – examples

SECRET VOICES

Five female diarists who offer windows into hidden aspects of history

Codebreaking pioneer

The work of Britain’s wartime cryptanalysts is now well known – but there is one woman whose contributions have gone largely unrecognised. JACKIE UÍ CHIONNA examines the life of the linguist and musicologist who became the nation’s most senior female codebreaker

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