There are two photographs on the desk Vita Sackville-West kept in the tower of Sissinghurst Castle. One of her husband, the writer and diplomat Harold Nicolson, and one of Virginia Woolf. The brief physical passion Vita and Virginia shared was…
There’s been a lot of talk about the new Mary Queen of Scots movie – much of it about the historical accuracy. But the most dramatic moments are not necessarily the invented ones. Did Mary Stuart and Elizabeth Tudor…
Of course Prince Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle is in many ways extraordinary. American, of mixed race and divorced – things have changed since Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson, surely. But let’s not get carried away. In one very important…
If you write about the Tudors, there are two people at whom you want a crack – well, if you’re interested in women’s history, anyway. One is Elizabeth I. (Been there, done that, in several books already.) The other is…
In the long twilight of the Victorian age, the British aristocracy quailed at the thought a new era might be about to dawn. One in which they could no longer count on the exclusive access to power they had once…
It’s twenty years ago this week since Mel Gibson’s Braveheart was released. Which makes it twenty one years (yes, I am that old) since I interviewed him about it at the Cannes Film Festival, and then went on the set…
The story of Arbella Stuart, England’s Lost Queen on BBC
I think it was the men on horseback that finally got to me. Two knights (or near offer) in shining armour, riding through the streets of Leicester ahead of Richard’s coffin, while the spectators threw white roses, and the officials…
The white expanses at the ends of the earth have always had a special place in all our imaginations. Almost three years ago, in 1912 , the anniversary of Scott’s Antarctic expedition saw us all give ourselves up to the…
Most people in these islands, if asked, would probably say that the crown of England goes from father to son (or failing a son, daughter) by strict right of blood. In all the tales that we as a nation tell…