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Pet monkeys became a popular fashion accessory for the Victorians, found in homes across the country. But they were rarely living a life of luxury.

Early modern fairy tale or urban legend? Who was London’s pig-faced lady and where did she come from?

In the Icelandic sagas communal feasting served as cornerstone of celebration. A thousand years on, these cautionary tales still offer sage advice for the Yule festivities.

The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789 by Robert Darnton is a sweeping account of events from the Parisian perspective, from disastrous wars to fights for religious toleration.

Confinement: The Hidden History of Maternal Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Britain by Jessica Cox looks at the engine of the Victorian population boom: motherhood.

A Northern Wind: Britain 1962-65 by David Kynaston is a hyperreal account of Britain on the cusp of modernity.

The governors of the London Foundling Hospital recruited an external network of nurses to care for children. For many, the bonds established endured.

London used to ring with the cries of street sellers. Changes for the city brought changes to their way of life.

Theft in East Germany was so common as to be nicknamed ‘the people’s sport’. Why were citizens of the GDR so light-fingered?

Withdrawing labour is an age-old response to workplace grievances. But how old, and to what effect?