We ask a lot of some very small fish. Single species are relied on to save entire ecosystems. In December I tried to ...

Children’s books, to a great extent because they are written for those who cannot participate in the market, can ...

Tom Johnson joins Malin Hay to discuss the revolution in numeracy and use of numbers in Early Modern England. How did the English go from seeing arithmetic as the province of tradespeople and ...

The question Trump’s opponents want answered is whether he can get away with it. Will his coalition hold, will ...

Much of what was great about Chris Jefferies was used to attack him and destroy his reputation when the media, ...

Robert Schumann’s teenage ambitions of virtuosity were undone by the onset of debilitating pain in his right hand.

Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, better known as The Golden Ass, is the only ancient Roman novel to have survived in its entirety. Following the story of Lucius, forced to suffer as a donkey until the goddess ...

Children’s fiction has its own peculiar power: like a swordstick in an umbrella, it can flash sharp at unexpected moments. Taken seriously, it can work not just to educate but to transform and ...

Your browser does not support the audio element. By the end of 1895 Oscar Wilde’s life was in ruins as he sat in Reading Gaol facing public disgrace, bankruptcy and ...

On one level, Mansfield Park is a fairytale transposed to the 19th century: Fanny Price is the archetypal poor relation who, through her virtuousness, wins a wealthy husband. But Jane Austen’s 1814 ...

Your browser does not support the audio element. For the final episode of their series on the medieval sense of humour, Irina and Mary look at one of the most ...