BBC History Magazine

BBC History Magazine aims to shed new light on the past to help you make more sense of the world today. Fascinating stories from contributors are the leading experts in their fields, so whether they're exploring Ancient Egypt, Tudor England or the Second World War, you'll be reading the latest, most thought-provoking historical research. BBC History Magazine brings history to life with informative, lively and entertaining features written by the world's leading historians and journalists and is a captivating read for anyone who's interested in the past.

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THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

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THIS MONTH IN HISTORY • NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS COMMENT ANNIVERSARIES

Hidden in plain sight? • Is “Hidden histories” a benign phrase, or one that disguises the reality of whose voices have been heard throughout past centuries? ANNA WHITELOCK watched the debate unfold

Stonehenge “first erected in Wales”

HISTORY IN THE NEWS • A selection of the stories hitting the history headlines

The fight for free school meals • Recent calls to provide free meals for impoverished schoolchildren have reignited a debate that has raged for decades in Britain. ANNIE GRAY considers why these state-funded lunches have caused such consternation, from monotonous menus to the ever-present threat of cost-cutting

MICHAEL WOOD ON… • REIMAGINING OUR ANCIENT PAST

ANNIVERSARIES • DOMINIC SANDBROOK highlights events that took place in April in history

WHY WE SHOULD REMEMBER… • How a game of ping-pong thawed US-Sino relations

LETTER OF THE MONTH

LETTERS

BBC HiSTORY MAGAZINE

ROME GLORIED IN CLEOPATRA’S TALE OF DECADENCE, LUST AND DEATH • Joyce Tyldesley on an Egyptian queen’s ill-fated entanglements with three Roman generals

TIMELINE The rise and fall of Egypt’s last pharaoh

Who is Britain’s greatest prime minister? • Three hundred years ago this month, Robert Walpole became Britain’s first PM. To mark this huge moment in political history, we asked five historians to nominate the 10 leaders who they believe accomplished most during their residency in Number 10

“We need to see LGBTQ history as part of wider social and cultural changes” • Recent years have seen LGBTQ histories increasingly take centre stage, from the Stonewall riots to the queer pasts of National Trust houses. But what are the challenges of telling such stories? We assembled an expert panel to find out

THE PANEL

THE MEN WHO MADE THE EMPIRE RUN • From central London, a huddle of harried clerks sent out an endless stream of dispatches that influenced the fate of the British empire. Alan Lester focuses on the year of 1838 to reveal how these city-bound bureaucrats managed to govern the world’s largest maritime empire

SMUGGLING, SUBVERSION AND SLAUGHTER • The events that dominated seven of Britain’s colonies in 1838

The supreme scoundrel of the Renaissance • Jerry Brotton tells the sensational story of Benvenuto Cellini, a master goldsmith and sculptor who revelled in violence, sodomy and murder

THE MAN WITH THE MIDAS TOUGH • The stories behind three of Cellini’s most impressive artworks

A NEGLECTED LEGACY • Although a select few championed Cellini after his death, he has largely faded into obscurity

A NATION IN NUMBERS • As the Office for National Statistics rolls out its 2021 Census of England and Wales, David Bradbury and Boris Starling reveal what statistics can tell us about seven aspects of British life over the past century – from immigration rates to our changing taste in baby names

Q&A • A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

DID YOU KNOW...?

The Neanderthal in the mirror • Rebecca Wragg Sykes argues that the ever...