Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2026 i History Extra

“We can’t escape from Jack the Ripper. Every year a new book, a new theory, a new drama or a new documentary promises to reshape our understanding of this heinous murderer – although arguably few actually do. But Jack was not the only elusive serial killer operating in late 19th-century London, and in this month’s cover feature Lucy Worsley explores the brutal crimes of the ‘Thames Torso Murderer’ and the modern-day investigation that might finally have revealed his identity. As you’ll discover from her piece, beginning on page 54, this is a tale that also shines a light on themes of gender, poverty and urban development as the Victorian age drew to a close. 2026 is a big year for historical anniversaries, with perhaps the most significant being 250 years…

Listen ad-free at historyextra.com/podcast or with ads wherever you get your podcasts NEW SERIES Turning over an old leaf How are your new year’s resolutions going? There’s still time to make (or recommit) to them – and in our new Life Lessons from History podcast series, experts offer inspiration from the past on how to be happier, healthier and wiser. MYTHOLOGY Of frogs and fairies Delve into the enchanting world of British folklore with Ceri Houlbrook and Owen Davies. Why could a new year’s ritual end up in court? Why were urban stories so often overlooked? And how was milk thought to cure snake-inflicted maladies? EUROPE A foundational faith Arguing that the contributions of Muslim culture to European civilisation have been repeatedly sidelined across more than 1,000 years, Tharik Hussain…

LETTER OF THE MONTH In defence of Winston Churchill Although I realise that it is a favourite pastime among historians, particularly the British, to demonstrate that our idols have feet of clay, I must protest at the inclusion of Winston Churchill in the list of the “most overrated people in history” (January). On a personal level he was a brave man, and a very human one, who was not afraid to cry in public, a lover of animals, uxorious to a fault, as well as being possessed of great intelligence and an oratorical ability to inspire millions. He is the only one of those mentioned I ever saw in person, he lived less than 9 miles from my home, and I spent more than 40 years with a close view…

AD 1000 Norse power: when worlds collide This moment is surely imbued with the most global symbolism. It was when, according to the Old Norse-Icelandic sagas, adventurers sailed across the north Atlantic from settlements on the west coast of Greenland to the edge of the North American continent. There they met inhabitants of coastal regions of what’s now Canada: ancestors of peoples such as the Beothuk and Algonquin. The circle of humanity was closed for the first time in recorded history. In the 1960s, archaeologists found a Norse overwintering site at L’Anse aux Meadows, at the northern tip of Newfoundland. This backed up what the sagas had already described: a series of voyages west from Greenland, the discovery of new lands and resources, and increasingly violent encounters with the people…

William Grenfell CHANNEL-CROSSING CHAIRMAN The 1st Baron Desborough (1855–1945) was the first chairman of the British Olympic Association, and the head of the British Olympic Council that organised the 1908 Games. Educated at Harrow and Oxford, he was a talented amateur sportsman in his student days. He twice rowed in the Boat Race against Cambridge, and excelled in cricket, fencing and athletics. His wider sporting adventures included climbing the Matterhorn, rowing across the English Channel in an eight, and swimming across the pool at the bottom of Niagara Falls. Florence ‘Madge’ Syers ENGLAND’S ICE QUEEN The London-born daughter of a property developer, Syers (1881–1917) had revolutionised the sport of figure-skating by entering the World Championships in 1902 – even though there was no dedicated female class. She came second. Syers…

A Queer Inheritance: Alternative Histories in the National Trust by Michael Hall (Bloomsbury Caravel, 432 pages, £25) Charlotte Vosper In A Queer Inheritance, you explore histories of sexual difference connected to the National Trust. What drew you to those historical figures and their stories? Michael Hall That goes back a long way. For quite a few years I worked for Country Life magazine, and in that role I wrote articles about country houses. I actually began with one of those I mention in my book: Packwood House in Warwickshire. It was acquired in 1904 by an industrialist for his son, Graham Baron Ash, who spent years renovating and transforming the property. It struck me that he never got married – and the idea that a bachelor might do up a…

The Hitler Years: Holocaust 1933-1945 by Frank McDonough Apollo, 416 pages, £35 After covering the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany, it was perhaps inevitable that Frank McDonough – one of the country’s foremost historians of the Third Reich – would turn his attention to the Holocaust, the defining atrocity of Hitler’s odious reign. One might ask what more can be said about one of history’s most studied genocides, and to some extent one would be right. But what McDonough presents is a lucid, comprehensive and thoroughly accessible synthesis that aims to explain both how and why the Holocaust unfolded as it did, while never losing sight of the horror or its human element. McDonough moves chronologically from the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 through the gradual radicalisation of race…

Voices of Thunder: Radical Religious Women of the Seventeenth Century by Naomi Baker Reaktion, 320 pages, £16.99 For 11 or 12 days in 1654, Anna Trapnel, a self-styled prophet from Poplar, lay in a stupor in an inn near Whitehall. With her eyes shut and her body unmoving, she spoke and sang prophecies to the crowds that gathered around her bed. She railed against Oliver Cromwell, newly installed as Lord Protector. He should be “ashamed of his great pomp and revenue, whilst the poor are ready to starve”, she said, and predicted his downfall: “I tell you the Lord God will eclipse your glory.” Trapnel is one among a number of Englishwomen – all Nonconformist Protestants – whose stories are told by Naomi Baker in Voices of Thunder. They are…

Until recently, the tiny east Cornish village of St Ive (pronounced St Eve, and not to be confused with St Ives) had little to detain passersby – except perhaps, historians intrigued by its 14th-century church or nearby remnants of the Victorian mining boom. But an immersive museum dedicated to a rector’s daughter, Emily Hobhouse, who would become a prominent welfare and anti-war activist during the Second Anglo-Boer War, has put St Ive firmly on the map. The Story of Emily is a state-of-the art museum spanning two buildings, covering Emily’s childhood and adult life respectively. The first is the Gothic Revival-style rectory, opposite the church, immaculately restored to its mid-Victorian glory in 1875 when Emily was 15. Visitors tug the bell outside its front door to be allowed inside, just…

1. America’s forgotten cities We tend not to think of North America being highly urbanised prior to the European arrival, but as Kathleen DuVal explains on page 19, in the 11th century numerous Native North American cities were of a similar scale to London. 2. Before his time Reading our My History Hero interview about the 17th-century astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks, I was astonished to learn that he was just 22 when he died, having already achieved so much (page 106). 3. Back in the GDR One arresting detail in our piece about nostalgia is that, according to a recent survey, a quarter of East Germans would like a return to the communist German Democratic Republic (page 14).…

Roman gladiators were far from Hollywood hunks These warriors of the ancient arenas were trained and fed to provide a bloody, brutal spectacle, not a beauty pageant The gladiators of ancient Rome are often depicted as perfect physical specimens: lean, muscular and bronzed from bouts under the Mediterranean sun. But as classical historian Harry Sidebottom – author of Those Who Are About to Die: Gladiators and the Roman Mind (Hutchinson Heinemann, 2025) – explains, the reality was very different. Forget Paul Mescal or Russell Crowe: Roman gladiators were brutalised, scarred, physically lopsided and well-padded. Their appearance – and the way ancient Romans responded to it – reveals much about that society’s obsessions with violent spectacle. “On the one hand, gladiators were the lowest of the low,” Sidebottom says. “On the…

Jack Fairclough was a one-time partner of Elizabeth Jackson, and possibly the father of her child. They lived an itinerant life together, building up debts, and witnesses report that Jack had “unnaturally used” her. The police were obviously interested in this itinerant stonemason and army deserter, but Jack could prove that, at the time of Elizabeth’s death, he’d been away from London looking for work. James Hardiman was a cats’ meat man, a door-to-door pet-food salesman who worked with a barrow that would have been ideal for transporting a torso through London’s streets. The body of Ripper victim Annie Chapman was found in his mother’s backyard in Hanbury Street, Whitechapel, leading some to speculate that Hardiman was both Jack and the Thames Torso Murderer. However, their methods of killing seem too different.…

Infanta: The Short, Remarkable Life of Catalina Micaela by Magdalena S Sánchez Yale University Press, 416 pages, £30 “I do nothing but cry all night finding myself without you and tonight I have slept embracing your letter.” This heartfelt extract from a 1588 missive sent by Catalina Micaela (1567–97), infanta of Spain, to her husband, Duke Carlo Emanuele of Savoy, is just one example among hundreds explored in a new biography of Philip II’s youngest surviving daughter. Magdalena S Sánchez’s remarkable study of Catalina Micaela, who has been largely overlooked by historians, is based on more than 3,000 private letters exchanged between the infanta and her husband when the latter was absent from Turin on military campaigns. This body of sources is the fullest and best-preserved epistolary exchange between a…

AIDS in Soviet Russia: A Story of Deception, Despair and Hope by Rustam Alexander Manchester University Press, 248 pages, £18.99 Russia faces an HIV crisis of unprecedented scope. The situation has deteriorated since the war in Ukraine started diverting key resources, and today an estimated 1.2 million Russians are infected. Rustam Alexander’s new book provides a prehistory of today’s crisis and opens a fascinating window on the medical establishment, political elites and, especially, society of Russia in the 1980s. The book begins with the extraordinary story of Operation Denver, an extensive Soviet disinformation campaign suggesting that HIV came from the US. It was first promoted by the KGB in July 1982, with a story in a New Delhi newspaper claiming that the virus had been created in Pentagon bioweapons labs.…

Blueprints of Power Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire / 14 February-10 April / blenheimpalace.com Immerse yourself in the life and achievements of English architect and dramatist Sir John Vanbrugh on the 300th anniversary of his death. A new exhibition mounted at his boldest brainchild, Blenheim Palace, explores his ambitions, rivalries and relationships through an interactive experience using an array of visuals, rare archival material and period outfits. Samurai The British Museum, London / 3 February–4 May / britishmuseum.org Who were the real samurai? This new British Museum exhibition delves into the myths that swirl around these iconic Japanese warrior figures, and sorts the fact from the fantasy to reveal the truth behind the legend and explore the culture of that era. Featuring diverse artefacts, including an ornately decorated 19th-century women’s firefighting jacket…

Across 1 Bartholomew ____, English martyr burnt at the stake for heresy at Smithfield in March 1612 (6) 4 EP ____, English historian and activist best known for his The Making of the English Working Class (1963) (8) 10 Term for a phase of the Second World War between September 1939 and April 1940 (6,3) 11 Ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the Hwicce in the late seventh century (5) 12 Aegean island, centre of the Minoan civilisation (3000–1100 BC) (5) 13 ____ Forest, the site in France where the armistice ending the First World War was signed in November 1918 (9) 14 Theodor ____, 19th-century German historian specialising in ancient Rome (7) 17 In 1997, earthquakes damaged this centre of pilgrimage in Umbria (6) 18 See 24 down 20 Ancient unit of measurement based on the length of…

Lucy Worsley “We’ve all heard of Jack the Ripper. But another murderer was plying his grisly trade along the banks of the Thames. He is the scariest Victorian serial killer you’ve probably never heard of.” Lucy explores the grisly crimes of the Thames Torso Murderer, on page 54 Michael Hall “Traditionally the National Trust wasn’t very open about its queer connections – but then nobody was terribly open about these issues for many decades.” Michael tells the stories of LGBTQ people whose lives were connected with National Trust properties, on page 82 Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth “Lady Charlotte Schreiber subverted gendered norms and challenged strict Victorian conventions. Charting Charlotte’s eventful life, my new book celebrates her unsung legacy.” Caroline tells the remarkable tale of a Victorian collector, on page 34 Clifton Crais “What is the relationship between killing…

RECENTLY, I READ A NEWS ITEM ABOUT THE jobs most likely to disappear because of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). And first among them, along with translators, are historians! Now I’m biased of course, but in times like these, when the president of the United States himself can tell the world that Ukraine started the war with Russia, it seems to me we need historians more than ever. In the face of spreading authoritarian rule and growing rightwing populism, good history is a refuge and a beacon. Complicating matters further, it often seems as if the owners of the mass media, billionaires who wish to shape debates, don’t want historians any more than they want independent journalists. It seems that from their perspective, the less historically literate the people…

BLACKHEATH IN SOUTH-EAST LONDON HAS A rich history. It was a rallying point for both the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381 and the Kentish rebellion of 1450. Monarchs through the ages have passed through. But what is less known is that it was also the site for what may have been Britain’s first refugee camp. In 1709, army tents were temporarily erected in Blackheath to give shelter to some of the estimated 13,000 German refugees who had arrived in Britain from the Palatinate, which is the modern-day Rhineland. There were also camps in Camberwell, Clerkenwell and Greenwich. Initially, the refugees were supported with charitable donations. Many arriving were poor and they spoke a different language, but they were viewed as Protestants fleeing persecution from oppressive Catholic regimes. English parishes raised around…

While hunting for antiques in the Netherlands in the 1880s, the esteemed art dealer Joseph Joel Duveen received a tip-off that some “wonderful pieces of china” had come up for sale in a remote village. Getting there would involve a tediously long journey but, undeterred, Duveen set out. Several hours later, however, he spotted a carriage speeding past in the opposite direction, and was able to make out its passenger. Recognising the face of his great rival, Duveen promptly turned around, empty-handed, ruefully realising that she had beaten him to the village and “snatched the prize”. The victor on this occasion was Lady Charlotte Schreiber. Surprisingly, given her long life – she was 82 when she died, in 1895 – which included two marriages, 10 children, scandalous affairs and a…

EARLY MODERN “Catalina emerges as a strong-willed, devout, intelligent and humorous woman” Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer enjoys insights into a 16th-century duchess ➤ page 91 SECOND WORLD WAR “This accessible synthesis aims to explain both how and why the Holocaust unfolded as it did” Roger Moorhouse is impressed by a compelling study of the Nazis’ genocidal campaign ➤ page 90 SOCIAL “Chaplin was simply another south London child touched by the workhouse system” John Jacob Woolf lauds a lively exploration of poverty in Victorian London ➤ page 88 RELIGION “Despite being women, they believed they could be filled with God’s Spirit and utter his truths”  Alice Hunt recommends a book about female prophets in 17th-century England ➤ page 92 INTERVIEW Michael Hall on stories of queer people connected with National Trust properties ➤ page 82…

Streets of London In the 19th century, the capital’s network of byways represented more than a way to travel from A to B. The streets comprised a diverse space where a myriad of people lived, slept and interacted. In an episode from 2022, Oskar Jensen leads us through this busy, loud, filthy world, uncovering the untold stories of ordinary folk who lived and worked in London’s thoroughfares. historyextra.com/vagabonds-pod Class warrior Ernest Bevin was another high-profile 20th-century figure with a blue-collar background. In an episode from 2020, Andrew Adonis tells the story of Labour’s postwar foreign secretary, the seventh child in a farm-labouring family, who rose through the ranks of the trade union movement and played a pivotal role in preventing Stalin from expanding into western Europe. historyextra.com/bevin-pod Northern exposure In…

The Great Museum of the Sea: A Human History of Shipwrecks by James P Delgado Oxford University Press, 328 pages, £20 Shipwrecks are among the most fascinating historical events for the many levels on which they can be understood and their stories told. They reveal human tragedy, courage, sacrifice and villainy, yet also serve as rich allegories for contemporary issues, laden with symbolism and meaning. Before advances in ocean science, engineering and history enabled us to better understand maritime disasters, they were often explained as the acts of monsters. How else could vast, well-made vessels simply vanish? Today, modern research allows us to investigate the wrecks themselves and uncover real causes: whirlpools, freak waves, storms, human error, warfare, collisions, ice and fire. These explanations are vital, though the old tales…

When and why were you first drawn to the subject of manuscript discovery? I read Irene Vallejo’s Papyrus, about the invention of books, and Christopher de Hamel’s The Manuscripts Club, about extraordinary collectors. They showed me how precarious the history of the written word is, and how the passionate and often eccentric individuals who dedicate their lives to esoteric manuscripts can influence the preservation of human knowledge. Is the medieval manuscript in your book inspired by a real one? It’s based on the mysterious 15th-century Voynich manuscript. Written in an untranslatable script, it includes extraordinary illustrations, some of which have no obvious parallels in medieval or earlier art. Many have tried to decipher it, including famous codebreakers, but nobody has ever succeeded. How much of the story of your protagonist,…

Iron filings Among the highlights in the Archive on 4 slot, Forged in Steel (BBC Radio 4, Saturday 24 January) finds Alan Dein going back 30 years to recall his experiences when, working for the British Library, he travelled around Britain to gather material for an oral history of the steel industry. In Landscape for a Good Infant (BBC Radio 4, Saturday 7 February), historian Emily Baughan looks at how the state shapes different generations’ experiences of infancy – a story she approaches partly via formula milk. What does it say that it was supplied by the state to those born before 1976, whereas today it’s one of the UK’s most shoplifted products? Mythmaking and the Marcoses (BBC Radio 4, Saturday 14 February) marks the 40th anniversary of the flight…

IN PROFILE Born in Toxteth Park, then outside Liverpool, Jeremiah Horrocks was one of the founding fathers of British astronomy. He was the first person to demonstrate that the moon moves around the Earth in an elliptical orbit, and the only one to predict the transit of Venus of 1639 (a rare celestial event in which the planet passes between the Earth and the sun), becoming one of only two – along with his friend William Crabtree – to observe and record it. He died suddenly in 1641, aged just 22. “When Newton spoke about standing on the shoulders of giants, one of the people he was talking about was Horrocks” When did you first hear about Jeremiah Horrocks? As a child, I saw him and his telescope on the…