February 1969 afforded a spot of skiing for Nottingham residents.
Photographer: Nottingham Post, courtesy: Nottingham Local Studies photographic collection
Food shortages, festivities and far-off fighting – Britain’s coldest winters were among its most memorable.
By the 17th century, wealthy Britons were already experiencing the delights of expensive sugar confections.
Wikimedia Commons
The story of the growth of Britain’s sugar trade can tell us a lot about the development of capitalism and the slave trade.
Overweening ambition: George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham.
Peter Paul Rubens
Impeachment was a common political tool in early modern England, but its use lapsed 20 years after it was adopted in the US constitution.
PA archive
The Commonwealth’s ‘golden age’ wasn’t entirely dazzling.
In happier times: Stanley Baldwin (r) in August 1923, months before the December election.
PA Archive
When Stanley Baldwin called an election in December 1923, the outcome was unintended, unexpected and enduring.
A satirical photograph from 1901, where men’s and women’s dress and jobs are switched.
Underwood & Underwood/Wikimedia Commons.
For most of the Victorian era, people thought it was normal for men and women to be treated differently, and judged by different standards.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson shakes hands with Queen Elizabeth II.
Victoria Jones/Pool via AP
The U.K. prime minister sought to suppress Parliamentary opponents, saying he – not they – represents the will of the British people. It put Queen Elizabeth II in a real bind.
EPA
No one is saying she has done a stellar job, but other prime ministers have made mistakes like May.
EPA/Will Oliver
It’s easy, now, to think of this as Theresa May’s story – but Thatcher, Blair and Cameron all played their part.
Aaron Chown/PA Wire
Lessons from the British 19th century protests over electoral reform about the significance of crowd sizes.
Sarah Churchill was an adroit investor and savvy political operative.
Government Art Collection
While the film introduces viewers to women who were important political figures in British history, it doesn’t quite capture just how much power and influence these women actually wielded.
The Famine Memorial in Dublin, by sculptor Rowan Gillespie.
Ron Cogswell
The famine caused a million deaths and scarred the national psyche for generations. How do you even start to try and represent that in film literature, or art?
Sill from Peterloo.
Cornerstone Films
As a left-wing rallying cry, this account of the 1819 massacre in Manchester fails to rouse the inner revolutionary.
What happens next?
Destruction from The Course of Empire by Thomas Cole, 1836, via Wikimedia.
Once Britain slipped away from the Roman Empire in the early 5th century, signs of Roman life began to disappear.
You never know …
EPA-EFE/Neil Hall
At least one second daughter of a second son of the British monarch has ended up on the throne in her own right.
Who’s that at the window?
Suzanne Plunkett/PA Archive
As Chequers places host to a crucial Brexit cabinet meeting, a look back at how British prime ministers repeatedly fell in love with their country home.
Notting Hill Carnival: set up in the wake of race riots.
via shutterstock.com
What is the legacy of the Empire Windrush for black Britishness today?
Sanwal Deen/Unsplash
The Home Office threw away landing documents that are now vital to people trying to prove their right to stay in the UK.
Lionsgate Films
R.C. Sherriff’s classic play focused on the officer class, but the recent film adaptation has given working-class soldiers a voice.
PA/Archive
Women played and integral role in the year-long struggle – despite a culture that expected them to stay at home.