Follow a cast of curious bugs as they travel the world, finding out what continents and oceans are, what makes a capital city, where people live, and what's happening in the natural world. With interactive questions and activities.
The sun never set upon the British Empire, its critics liked to say, because God didn’t trust the British in the dark. The joke was a backhanded tribute to the astonishing achievement of t
Throughout history, a handful of unusually driven individuals have been inspired to explore the limits of the known world, inspiring us and changing our perceptions of our planet through their courage
Writing matters. We all do it, and we all admire it when it’s done well. It doesn’t just express us; it represents us. We write to connect with other people – to make them laugh, or
Malcolm Hebron writes with one aim in mind: to help you read, understand and appreciate poetry. The English language has an extraordinarily rich stock of poems to its credit, from the epic Beowulf, wr
Between 1933 and 1945, Germany was under the grip of the Third Reich. Headed by Adolf Hitler, this National Socialist state endeavoured to control every aspect of the nation’s political, social,
The war in North America between 1861 and 1865 cost around three quarters of a million lives. Few societies in world history have lost a higher percentage of their military-aged men in battle than did
The success of the Norman Conquest of Britain turned on one lucky break. For months, William of Normandy waited for an opportunity to cross the Channel and invade. But he needed favourable weather and
For many, before 1914, a huge European war had seemed impossible. Conflicts in the Balkans flared up yet stayed contained. The Belgian historian Henri Pirenne wrote to a friend in December 1905: &ldqu
The British colonies that became the United States of America originated in the 17th century. The early colonists were for the most part young men, looking to make their fortunes and then return home.
More than any other, Christianity is the world’s first truly global faith. Lying at the heart of Western civilization, Christianity has spread everywhere, and today is still winning converts in Africa
Stalin, to borrow Churchill’s phrase, is “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. There are still heated arguments about how precisely we should judge the Georgian student p
In his day Winston Churchill was one of the most famous human beings who ever lived. In 1945 most people in the world would have seen his name in the headlines, heard the latest news of him on t
Born in Corsica, and a brilliant military leader during the French revolution, Napoleon became Emperor in 1804 and dominated European and indeed global affairs for the next ten years, leading France a
Russia and its Rulers is a book which traces the history of Russia since the last days of the tsars until modern times. Caroline Brooke shows how Alexander II tried to reform his vast, backward and al
Charlotte McGann tells the story of human sexuality from the days of the hunter gatherers through to modern times. She explores the attitudes of the ancient Greeks and Romans to sex – and at the
History is littered with failed attempts to unite Europe by force, from the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire onwards. By contrast, the European Union began as a small and unglamorous attempt to u
Western slavery goes back 10,000 years to Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq, where a male slave was worth an orchard of date palms. Female slaves were called on for sexual services, gaining freedom only
Ignorance about Islam runs deep in the West – ignorance of its rites, its beliefs, and above all its prophet. Who was Mohammad, the founder of Islam, and the man Muslims believe was God&rs
