Laurence Earle

Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown is the towering genius of English garden architecture. Born in Northumberland in c.1715-16, this low-born son of a land agent and a chambermaid would go on to design groundbreaking naturalistic schemes of enduring beauty and enormous sophistication for many of the country’s grandest country houses – from Chatsworth to Compton Verney and from Alnwick Castle to Blenheim Palace.

All eyes were on Tokyo this summer, as the world’s most populous metropolitan area (home to an astonishing 37 million people) finally played host to the postponed 2020 Olympic Games. With its gleaming skyscrapers and ultramodern stadia, the Japanese capital made a suitably impressive backdrop for the planet’s biggest sporting event.

For centuries, the work of archaeologists has allowed us to piece together a picture of the past, and to understand our ancestors’ place in the universe. Without it, we would not know what life was like in Pompeii, or how the Ancient Egyptians buried their dead, or what role the sun and stars played in the building of Machu Piccu.

The Defence of Rorke’s Drift remains one of the most celebrated engagements in UK military history. On the night of 22 January 1879, a force of just over 150 British and colonial troops held off an estimated 3-4,000 Zulu warriors during more than 12 hours of bitter, hand-to-hand fighting that would result in the award of 11 Victoria Crosses.

He inherited the kingdom of Macedonia (in modern-day Greece) at the age of 20. By the time of his death, just 13 years later, he had created an empire that covered two million square miles – stretching across three continents, from the Danube and the Nile to the Himalayas – and all without losing a battle.

It was not, perhaps, our finest hour. On 21 July, UNESCO announced that its World Heritage Committee had voted to remove Liverpool from its List of World Heritage Sites, making Britain only the third country ever to suffer such an indignity. To make matters worse, the UN-backed agency warned that Stonehenge would also find its status in doubt if the government pressed ahead with plans to build a £1.7bn road tunnel under the site.

With her high cheekbones and long neck, she has been described as the ‘world’s first supermodel’. When her portrait bust went on display in 1923, she was hailed as an icon of timeless femininity. Since then, Nefertiti has been admired by everyone from Hitler to Beyoncé, and has provided inspiration to artists and writers around the world. Beyond all the adulation, however, what do we really know about this mysterious woman whose face has become so ubiquitous?

Fifty miles south of Sicily, the tiny, densely populated island of Malta sits at the epicentre of Mediterranean history. Perched midway between Europe and Africa, it has long been a cultural crossroads, and its strategic importance has been recognised by a complicated succession of foreign rulers – including the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Knights of the Order of Saint John, French, and British.

Tragically, massacres have been a regular feature of human conflict – and locations as varied as Amritsar and Srebrenica, Rwanda and Guatemala, Malmedy and My Lai have all earned their places in the annals of infamy. But while examples of indiscriminate mass killing may sadly be relatively commonplace, each has its own uniquely terrible story – the appalling product of time, place and a particular set of circumstances.

It seems less obvious today, as we hurtle about the country using modern road and rail networks, but river crossings were once dangerous places. In ancient times, rites in the form of prayers and sacrifices would be performed to appease the river gods and to improve the chances that goods and travellers would make it across unscathed.

Those with even a cursory knowledge of ancient history will recall that Julius Caesar made his first expedition to Britain in 55 BC. Others may also be aware that the process of Rome’s permanent conquest of Britannia did not begin until 43 AD, during the reign of Emperor Claudius. What is more mysterious, however, is what happened to Rome’s invasion plans in the almost 100 years between those two dates.