Innehållsförteckning för September 2025 från History Extra

“Seven years after an agreement was first announced, it's finally been confirmed: the Bayeux Tapestry is coming to the UK. The famous 70-metre embroidery is expected to be on show in the British Museum from next September until July 2027, giving British audiences an opportunity to see first-hand one of the most iconic artefacts of the medieval era. In this month's Conversation, you'll find early reaction to the news from a panel of experts, followed by Michael Wood's thoughts in his monthly column. That all begins on page 11. There's also big news brewing in the royal history world with Fern Riddell's revelations about a relationship between Queen Victoria and her Scottish servant John Brown. For our cover feature this month, we asked Fern to tell the story of her…

LETTER OF THE MONTH Park life I must extend my huge thanks to Jon Winder for his excellent article Swings and Roundabouts (July). I am currently scribbling notes which I hope to turn into a memoir of my childhood, and one chapter is dedicated to outdoor play, so this article was very timely, and a fascinating read. Growing up, we four siblings were lucky enough to have a 100ft garden which stretched down to the railway track, and a public park was just a five-minute walk up the road. I can't be the only reader to remember hurtling down a metal slide and not stopping at the bottom, leading to a hard, bumpy landing on solid concrete (these were the days before rubber mattings were put around equipment) or whizzing…

Accompanies Steve O'Hagan's Archive on 4 programme Exposing Hiroshima, available on BBC Sounds At 6am on 2 September 1945, Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett boarded a crowded train heading south-west from the wreckage of war-ravaged Tokyo. He was disobeying strict orders that no westerners should venture outside the Japanese capital – and, though he did not yet realise it, he was undertaking the most momentous journey of his life. The Second World War had ended. However, Japan had not formally surrendered, and American occupation was still to come. Japan's cities lay in ruins, and Burchett couldn't even be sure that the train line to his destination, over 400 miles away, was intact. He was also alone and in great danger – hence the Colt .45 pistol in his suitcase. Resentment towards…

Danny Bird What made you decide to write about the collapse of the western Roman empire and the rise of Christianity? Alice Roberts I've long been fascinated by this historical period, especially in Britain, where written records are scarce. This book grew from my interest in burial archaeology, shaped by excavations I took part in 20 years ago on a Welsh cliff. Bones were eroding from the cliff face, and we uncovered cist graves – stone-lined, coffin-like structures – some dating from as early as the fifth century. One grave even had a stone lid carved with a simple cross. These early Christian burials sparked my curiosity. More recently, I visited an excavation at Llantwit Major, where archaeologists are investigating what may be Britain's earliest monastery, possibly dating to the…

Almost exactly 80 years ago, the world's first atomic test explosion shattered the quiet of a New Mexico morning. A few weeks later, and in the space of a few days, nuclear weapons were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan with devastating effect. The Alamogordo test on 16 July 1945 is said to have ushered in the nuclear age, demonstrating American science and engineering prowess by bringing the Manhattan Project to a successful conclusion, as shown most recently in Christopher Nolan's Oscar-winning 2023 film Oppenheimer. However, as Gareth Williams details in this fast-paced and masterly corrective, any surviving notions that this was a purely American achievement should be discarded, recognising the major contribution made by émigré and UK-based scientists to the development of the bomb during the Second World…

Some books are made purely for reading, others to rest closed, and others to be savoured. Illumino falls into that last category: a gorgeous volume about gorgeous volumes. Turn its pages, relish its many images, and place yourself in a tradition stretching back to the medieval times it discusses. The subtitle states the book's conceit: to survey England from the eighth to the mid-16th centuries via a dozen illuminated manuscripts – one for each century, plus an additional manuscript each for the hyper-productive 12th, 14th and 15th centuries. Michelle P Brown begins with a codex on which she is one of the world's experts, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and ends with Henry VIII's prayerbook. Illumino, however, is more ambitious than this suggests: each chapter places its centrepiece within its historical context…

Ice Age Art Now Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, West Yorkshire / Until 14 September / bradfordmuseums.org This British Museum partnership project with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture transports visitors to Ice Age Europe. You can admire more than 75 rare carvings, sculptures, engravings (including a wolverine bone pendant, below) and other artefacts – from a 24,000-year-old flint point to the oldest figurative artwork discovered in England. The exhibition also contains more recent pieces by Rembrandt, Matisse and Maggi Hambling, immersive cave-art installations, family activities and expert talks. Treasured ST Lee Gallery, Weston Library, Oxford / Until 26 October / visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk What makes an object valuable? That's the question explored in a new exhibition celebrating the Friends of the Bodleian's 100th anniversary. Discover rarely seen literary gems, ancient texts and…

Listen ad-free at historyextra.com/podcast or with ads wherever you get your podcasts CULTURAL Light and shade Today, landscape painter JMW Turner is lauded as a national treasure, yet during his life he cut an eccentric and controversial figure. On the 250th anniversary of his birth, Nicola Moorby explores his story and asks what made him such an important artist. ANCIENT Child's play What toys and games did Roman children enjoy? How were they educated, how was discipline meted out, and what did they do at festivals? Bettany Hughes reveals what it was like to be young in the days of the ancient empire. SECOND WORLD WAR Rain of ruin On the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Richard Overy revisits the devastating attacks on Japan, and…

1. Urine good hands In this month's Q&A I was intrigued to learn that the ‘matula’, a flask for examining urine, used to be a common symbol for the medical profession in the medieval period (page 39). 2. Keeping England in check One interesting detail in David Woodman's article on King Æthelstan's reign is that the Indian game of chess is thought to have arrived in England during his years on the throne (page 29). 3. Twilight of the Etruscans Reading Lucy Shipley's piece about the Etruscan influence on the modern world, I was surprised to discover how much impact the ancient civilisation had on modern horror movies, including the global Twilight sensation (page 33).…

Samuel Pepys is England's most celebrated diarist. Between 1 January 1660 and 31 May 1669, he recorded his day-to-day life in fascinating and illuminating detail. He wrote about his relationship with his wife, Elizabeth, and the frustrations of managing his household and the servants. He left first-hand accounts of the plague epidemic that likely claimed around 100,000 lives in the capital in 1665–66, and of the Great Fire of London that followed. He has come down through the years as one of the key primary sources for anyone trying to understand the early Restoration era. But there was a dark side to Pepys' writings, which was never intended to be made public. He described a sordid litany of sexual encounters ranging from his relationships with long-term mistresses to his assaults…

This ambitious take on Britain's late-colonial presence across Asia is a big-picture view that will appeal to British readers, but also contains enough minutiae to engage readers in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma) and Aden, the areas on which it focuses. In recounting the dissolution of the British Indian empire into 12 modern nations, the book explores the political, military and social upheavals that led to this transformation, highlighting its lasting impact on the region. The book starts with the Great Uprising of 1928 and ends in 1972 with the partition of Pakistan. Taking the singular word ‘partition’, the book pluralises it by collecting within that term the separation of Burma and Aden from British India in 1937, the division of India and Pakistan in 1947 – along with the…

This new book by Susan L Carruthers illuminates how clothing and shoes could mean life or death. They also represented inequality at home and abroad, were the catalysts of protests across the globe, and even played a role in the Nuremberg trials. Taking shoes as just one example, Carruthers tells wildly diverse stories. No shoes meant no work and no school, both in Britain and occupied Germany. (Some families shared a single pair.) The pile of thousands of pairs of shoes owned by those cremated at the Bergen-Belsen camp – so many that the ones on the bottom were “squashed flat as paper” – horrified relief workers. Victor Gallancz, the British publisher and co-founder of Save Europe Now, discovered on his tour of Germany in October 1946 that 3,100,000 pairs…

In 1986, Helen Steel and David Morris – members of an anarchist environmentalist collective – distributed a pamphlet that changed their lives. What's Wrong with McDonald's? Everything They Don't Want You to Know was highly critical of the fast-food giant – which, in 1990, brought libel proceedings against five activists. Three apologised and avoided going to court, but Steel and Morris defended themselves through a long series of cases. Along the way, one Keir Starmer gave pro bono legal advice to the pair. Over six episodes, The People vs McDonald's (BBC Sounds, Wednesday 13 August) looks back at what came to be known as the ‘McLibel’ saga. In Rory Stewart: The Long History of Heroism (BBC Sounds, Monday 4 August), the podcaster and former politician considers the role of the…

Alice Roberts “A story that began with burials in Wales led me across the Roman world from Istanbul to Alexandria, aiming to find out how Christianity spread so widely.” Alice reveals how and why the Roman empire turned to Jesus on page 68 Fern Riddell “As I carefully set out on my research, I had little comprehension of the journey I was about to take, nor the astonishing secret it would reveal.” Fern discusses her investigation into Queen Victoria's relationship with John Brown on page 18 David Woodman “Æthelstan was England's founding father. He was also a king who had ambitions at a European level, and who offered significant support for learning and religion.” David explores King Æthelstan's remarkable reign on page 24 Kavita Puri “Part of the reason we don't talk about…

“We should remember the unknown women who made the Tapestry” LIKE ALL READERS, I AM SURE, I WAS THRILLED to hear the news that the Bayeux Tapestry is coming to England next year. 1066 is the most important date in British history, and the Tapestry is the greatest single source, taking the tale from the last days of Edward the Confessor through the drama of Harold and William, the Norman invasion, and the defeat and death of Harold at Hastings. The Tapestry has been in Bayeux since the Middle Ages and has never left, save briefly during the Franco-German War and under Napoleon and the Nazis, who both sought to weaponise it prior to their own invasion attempts. But it was made in England in the aftermath of the Conquest,…

Medieval Marlene? Supposedly medieval frescoes in a church in Lübeck, Germany were found to feature figures modelled on Marlene Dietrich and Rasputin. In 1951, Lothar Malskat was commissioned to restore paintings in the city's Marienkirche. Instead of restoring the frescoes (which had all but vanished), he created his own versions of 14th-century art. Praised by many art historians, the frescoes appeared on a set of German postage stamps. Some years later, Malskat confessed to the forgeries and spent 18 months in prison. Royal relic In the early 19th century, the fourth cervical vertebra of Charles I was removed from the monarch's coffin and passed around the table at dinner parties held by the royal physician, Sir Henry Halford. In 1813, Halford, at the request of the Prince Regent, supervised the…

8 July 1853 American commodore Matthew Perry sails four ships into Tokyo Bay. The expedition leads to the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and the west 1868 The Meiji restoration – named after the Emperor Meiji – marks the return of imperial rule, ends the feudal Tokugawa shogunate, and triggers Japan's rise to a modern global power 7 December 1941 The attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan's surprise assault on the naval base propels it into all-out war with the United States. The raid coincides with Japanese invasions of several other territories in Asia and the Pacific 4–7 June 1942 The Japanese navy suffers defeat to the US Pacific Fleet at Midway. The battle is widely cited as a turning point in the Pacific, paving the way for the advance…

FACT TO FICTION “The Castilian menace to English shipping in the Channel was real and terrifying” Dan Jones brings to life lesser-known episodes from the Hundred Years' War page 73 CULTURAL “Professional newsmongers went to great lengths to verify stories that came their way” Andrew Pettegree applauds a look at news networks in early modern Europe page 72 MEDIEVAL “The book becomes an evocation of the changing literary culture of medieval England” David Rundle commends an exploration of glorious medieval manuscripts page 76 WWII “Without the early British wartime contribution, there would have been no bomb during the war” Matthew Jones welcomes a study of British scientists in the Manhattan Project page 74 INTERVIEW Alice Roberts on the evolution of Christianity in the ancient Roman empire page 68…

What real events shaped your depiction of life after the Black Death? The prologue of Lion Hearts is set in Bordeaux as the awful reality of the Black Death becomes plain in that city. Edward III's beloved daughter, Joan, stopped there en route to marry the future king Pedro the Cruel of Castile in 1348. She caught the plague and died – a personal tragedy that also damaged hopes of an Anglo-Castilian alliance in the Hundred Years' War. Did any specific figures inspire your portrayal of Edward III's court? Another Joan – the so-called Fair Maid of Kent, future mother of Richard II – plays a colourful role in this story. The messy dissolution of one of her marriages had been a cause celebre at court, and we see how…

The Second Crusade (1145–49) was a highly ambitious undertaking. Launched half a century after the already-famous First Crusade, this new campaign grew rapidly in scope. It soon encompassed expeditions fought almost simultaneously in the Holy Land, the Baltic and Iberia (Spain and Portugal). Pope Eugenius III drove home the call for holy war by inciting the descendants of former crusaders to follow in their forebears' footsteps, thereby authorising warmaking on a truly epic scale. Yet for all their grandiose plans, the armies of the Second Crusade achieved little; only their campaigns in Iberia resulted in substantial territorial conquests. The central venture to the Middle East, led by the kings of France and Germany, suffered heavy losses trying to reach the Holy Land and then ground to a halt outside Damascus…

IN PROFILE Tommy Flowers was a British engineer with the Post Office. He's best known for designing and building Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic computer, which helped decrypt German messages during the Second World War. After the end of the conflict, Flowers continued to work for the Post Office, where he was involved in developing ERNIE, the random number generator used to pick Premium Bond winners. “He listened to his staff, got quality work out of them and attracted great loyalty. He was the nearest thing to a mentor to me” When did you first hear about Flowers? I had the privilege of working as a member of his team (on the first electronic telephone exchange, and later ERNIE) at the Post Office Research Station in Dollis Hill in…