A dreamy, if overly ambitious show: Silk Roads, at the British Museum, reviewed
Towards the end of the British Museum’s Silk Roads show, there is a selection of treasures found in England. Among…
Voices from Gaza, historic city in ruins
Accounts of the current bombings and the daily search for fuel, food and water are by turns heartbreaking, terrified, resilient and defiant – and cling to the hope of a peaceful future
The remarkable Princess Gulbadan, flower of the Mughal court
Emperor Babur’s beloved daughter – whose name means ‘body like a rose’ – speaks to us across the centuries in a cliffhanging account of royal life in Hindustan
Reigns of terror
The nomadic tribes of Central Asia eventually created vast empires that changed not only their own world but western history, says Kenneth W. Harl
The battle for the Nile
The explorers’ journey to solve the great geographical puzzle of the Victorian age, and the bad blood it resulted in, is described in gripping detail by Candice Millard
From nomads to emperors
This is the best of times to be writing history, since so much of what has been taken for granted,…
Making holy war
When the British formed the basis of their empire in the 1600s by acquiring territories in India and North America,…
A daughter’s duty
There comes a time after the death of parents when grief subsides, the sense of loss eases, and you, the…
Fair women and brave men
History is full of ‘ifs’ and the Spartan story fuller than most. If the 300 had not made their famous…
Ways of escape
Travel writing is ‘the red light district of literature’, as Colin Thubron aptly put it, a space where anything goes.…
William Dalrymple has nailed the East India Company for what it was: ‘a supreme act of corporate violence’
A boardful of company directors are summoned to explain themselves to a Whitehall select committee. The Bank of England has…
The Arabs before Islam: a rich, exotic history
In his first book, published in 1977, Tim Mackintosh-Smith described mentioning the idea of travelling to Yemen while studying Arabic…
The scramble for Africa goes back many centuries
A thought kept recurring as I read Toby Green’s fascinating and occasionally frustrating book on the development of West Africa…
Striking Middle Sea
The Mediterranean has always been central to European civilisation — and a source of drama and conflict, says Anthony Sattin
Wonders will never cease
The marvellous tales of the title are not just confined to the contents of this book, for the travels and…
The long and winding road
If you have read Iain Sinclair’s books you will know that he is a stylist with a love of language.…
