MHM Book Awards 2026
The ballots have been cast, the votes counted, and we are delighted to announce the winners of the MHM Book Awards. We curated a list of 2025’s best military history titles, and asked you, our readers, to vote for your…
19th century
‘Fighting Bob’ and the ‘Grenadier in Petticoats’
Major-General Sir Robert Sale and his wife Lady Florentia were Victorian celebrities, famed for their bravery on the Indian subcontinent. Patrick Mercer goes in search of a couple who became a byword for gritty colonial glamour.
Oscar Wilde’s room rediscovered at Brighton hotel
The hotel suite in which Oscar Wilde stayed shortly before his arrest for gross indecency has been rediscovered during recent archaeological work at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton. The room was identified by Dr Michael Shapland from UCL Archaeology…
Sir John Gardner Wilkinson: The ‘other founder’ of British Egyptology
Robert R Frost explores the life and legacy of the antiquary, traveller, and pioneer of British Egyptology.
Little Bighorn: The five key myths
One of the most talked-about battles in US history took place 150 years ago this summer. Here, Fred Chiaventone identifies some common misunderstandings about Custer’s Last Stand.
In Brief
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
Warship sunk by Nelson discovered on seabed
Marine archaeologists have uncovered the wreck of the Dannebroge, a Danish warship sunk during the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April 1801. The Dannebroge sat at the centre of a chain of old Danish ships of the line that had…
UK news in brief
Crown Room at Edinburgh Castle redeveloped Redevelopment of Edinburgh Castle’s Crown Room is under way. The project, which began in January, will see elements of the Victorian design, including oak panelling, restored and new enhanced displays for the Honours of…
August Mariette
Our series highlighting often overlooked Egyptologists continues with the legacy of a founder of the discipline, reassessed by Amandine Marshall.
A tempered history: Touring the material legacy of teetotalism
Temperance halls, hotels, coffee houses, memorials, and drinking fountains blossomed in the 19th century under the influence of the burgeoning teetotal movement. Most have now been converted to other uses, but they are still there – if you know where to look. A new Historic England book by Andrew Davison draws our attention to this forgotten heritage, as Chris Catling reports.
19th-century industrial heritage uncovered near Swansea
Excavations at the former Hafod–Morfa Copperworks have revealed rare evidence of copper-processing techniques used in the Lower Swansea Valley during the 19th century which, at its peak, accounted for an extraordinary amount of the world’s copper production. The Hafod Copperworks…
Two months on the Nile: Thomas Sandwith’s Nineteenth-Century Egyptian Journey
Thomas Sandwith was a British diplomat who served as consul in the Levant from 1855 to 1891. This is the second volume in a biography written by historian and former senior British civil servant Stephen Boys Smith, which covers Sandwith’s…
Celebrating Railway 200: Sheringham Station, Norfolk
To mark 200 years since the Stockton and Darlington Railway – the world’s first modern railway – opened on 27 September 1825, Historic England have announced seven new listings relating to railway heritage sites across the country. Four stations have…
Hilary Wilson on…The next best thing
Hilary Wilson explores the preservation of Egypt’s cultural heritage through replicas – the next best thing to visiting the monuments themselves.
MHM 148 Competition
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition
Little End: Tracing the archaeology and social history of a long-vanished community
Excavations at Eaton Socon, near St Neots, have revealed illuminating traces of a rural hamlet and the experiences of its working-class inhabitants over the course of more than a century. Isobel Woolhouse outlines some of the key findings.
The Watercolour World
The invention in 1900 by Eastman Kodak of the Brownie camera, selling for the equivalent in today’s money of £28, brought the watercolour age to an end. This too had begun, in the mid-18th century, with technical innovations, such as…
Robert Talbot Kelly – Egypt: Painted and Described
Lee P Ruddin explores the life and work of an artist whose beautiful paintings of Egyptian life are now sadly overlooked.
The end of the affair
In the final part of our series on Napoleon Bonaparte, Graham Goodlad examines the reasons for his decline and eventual defeat.
Turning point: The road to Appomattox – Part 2: 1863
Fred Chiaventone reveals how Abraham Lincoln was forced to reorganise his forces, hoping for better results after a series of stunning reversals.
Once upon a time in America
In our Special Feature for this issue, and over the next two editions of MHM, historian Fred Chiaventone marks the 160th anniversary of the war’s end by tracing the long and painful road to Appomattox – from Southern secession to final surrender.
The Chance Heritage Trust
Glassmaking was introduced to Smethwick by Thomas Shutt, who started making crown window-glass on a site alongside the Birmingham Canal in 1814. When he died in 1822, his company was sold to Robert Lucas Chance, the business later changing its…
War Classics – Flashman
Any novelist approaching a publisher with an idea for a series of stories centred around a cowardly, bullying racist, who is also a serial philanderer, would nowadays be very quickly shown the door. Yet George MacDonald Fraser achieved celebrity and surprising academic respect for just such a series, which consisted of 12 books published between 1969 and 2005.
The Coker Rope & Sail Trust
There were nine sailmakers in West Coker at the start of the 19th century, and the bleaching fields around the Somerset village were white with canvas sheets laid out in the sun. ‘Coker canvas’ became the generic name for the…
Current Research in Egyptology: Kamal and Erman
Azza Ezzat and Ahmed Mansour highlight the achievements of two prestigious names in the history of Egyptology.
Sheffield Castle excavations reveal undiscovered steelworks
A previously undocumented steelworks dating to the 19th century has been discovered in Sheffield as part of continuing excavations, which began in 2015 to uncover the ‘lost castle’ (CA 351). The steelworks would have formed one of three similar works…
Work begins on major restoration of ‘innovative’ Sussex coastal fort
A major new restoration project is under way at the 150-year-old Newhaven Fort, which is one of the largest defensive works ever built in Sussex. The £7.5 million project aims to open up previously inaccessible areas of the fort, such…
War Classics – Wellington in the Peninsula
Nick Spenceley recalls one of the great works of military history.
CA 411 Letters – May
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
War on Film – Napoleon
TAYLOR DOWNING reviews the latest film releases.
Rediscovering the tartan mills of Bannockburn
A recent project has set out to rediscover the archaeology and history of the textile mill complex in Bannockburn, Stirling. In its heyday during the late 18th and 19th centuries, it was one of the largest producers of tartan, furnishing…
Dark shadows: Nathan Bedford Forrest & Fort Pillow, 1864
Considered by many the finest cavalry officer of the American Civil War, Nathan Bedford Forrest was also responsible for one of its worst atrocities. Edmund West examines a troubling legacy.
Museum news and exhibitions
The latest on exhibitions, acquisitions, and key decisions.
China’s hidden century
A new exhibition at the British Museum explores an important period of cultural change in China’s history. Amy Brunskill visited to find out more.
19th-century graves linked to one of America’s oldest black churches, says analysis
‘As our community comes together to explore this important site, we hope to also reveal voices that have important lessons to teach us about our country’s roots.’
Francis Frith in Egypt
Julia Skinner explores the life and work of the pioneering photographer
who documented the great monuments of ancient Egypt.