Tag: pkar

History on the airwaves

HISTORY ON THE AIRWAVES “Burke and Hare realised that Edinburgh’s surgeons would pay hard cash for bodies” Professor Lisa Rosner (pictured), historical consultant on a new radio series about the crimes of William Burke and William Hare, talks to us about their 19th-century murder spree Burke and Hare murdered at least 16 people in 1828. […]

Diary

Diary VISIT / WATCH / LISTEN By Jonathan Wright and Rhiannon Davies VISIT Radical vision The Rossetti generation – spearheaded by Dante Gabriel, his sister, Christina, and his wife, Elizabeth (neé Siddal) – defied the staid expectations of Victorian society, creating an explosion of paintings and poetry that celebrated romance and radicalism. Their Pre-Raphaelite years […]

Taking aim with art

CULTURAL Taking aim with art Uproar!, we are forewarned, rips through the context and production of British 18th and 19th-century pictorial satire, focusing on the careers of Georgian artists Thomas Rowlandson, Isaac Cruikshank and James Gillray. The author’s note states that this is a subject known only to enthusiasts and academics – quite a claim, […]

The legends we love

MEDIEVAL The legends we love Why does everyone love Loki? Blame the novelists. Once, this father of monsters was considered the epitome of evil; in the original Norse myths, he is ultimately revealed to be a malicious traitor. Carolyne Larrington charts how this initially unattractive figure has been reimagined from the 1970s onwards by authors […]

Mind games

MEDICINE Mind games Andrew Scull is entertained by a critical but witty examination of early psychoanalytical practitioners and their self-absorbed patients In his new book, Seamus O’Mahony invites readers to view the shifting fortunes of three men over the course of nearly four decades. The guru in question is Sigmund Freud; the bagman is his […]

What was lost

20TH CENTURY What was lost Alexander Watson is moved by a study of the impact of extremism on the people of one eastern European town In October 1938, some 6,500 Jews living in Germany were arrested without warning and dumped by police outside the Polish frontier village of Zbąszyń. At first, the surprised Polish border […]

Lighting up the stage

CULTURAL Lighting up the stage Stephen Unwin is enthralled by a survey of English thespians, the subjects ranging from medieval talents to the greats of the 21st century “Acting is merely the art of keeping a large number of people from coughing,” declared the sublime actor Ralph Richardson. His wry line suggests just how hard […]

Competing theories?

SCIENCE Competing theories? Patricia Fara is swept up by a novel exploration of the intertwined histories of science and religion spanning several continents and many centuries When Samuel Johnson embarked on the daunting project of compiling an English dictionary in 1746, he aimed – as he later said – to “embalm his language, and secure […]

Books interview: Peter Frankopan

INTERVIEW / PETER FRANKOPAN “Climate is a factor that underpins all of human history” Peter Frankopan talks to Rhiannon Davies about his pioneering new book exploring how humanity’s complex relationship with the natural world has altered over the millennia PROFILE Peter Frankopan is professor of global history at Oxford University, and Stavros Niarchos Foundation director […]