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Yemen’s forgotten war

Map of Algiers, c1700. It was here that Icelanders, including Ólafur Egilsson, were sold into slavery. (Culture Club/Getty Images)

Barbary pirates: kidnapped in Iceland

An aquatint shows barbers at work, with varying degrees of success. (Wellcome Collection)

At the edge of reason: shaving and razors in 18th-century Britain

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The partisan fighter Abba Kovner.

My history hero: Abba Kovner (1918–87) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A view of Jerusalem's best known landmark the Dome of the Rock, a spectacular shrine on the site where Muhammad is said to have risen to heaven. (Getty Images)

Jerusalem: blood and gold

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George III at the end of his reign. He

Uncertainty and unrest: the madness of the Regency period . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Darfur: The history behind the bloodshed

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Austerity measures will open the door to the black market

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Aftermath of a smash-and-grab raid at a shop in London, c1929. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Ruby Sparks: the smash-and-grab gangster . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British prime minister Edward Heath with Olympic gold medal winner Mary Peters. (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Communist sport: Cold War copycats

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Scottish poet Robert Burns. His poetry captured a familiar if rapidly disappearing rural way of life, says Christopher Whatley. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Robert Burns: the people’s poet . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Christopher Clayton Hutton smuggled everything from currency to forged ID discs into German PoW camps. (Public domain)

My history hero: Christopher Clayton Hutton (1893–1965) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

This engraving by Charles Grignion (1717–1810) is taken from a lost bust of John Leland at All Souls College, Oxford. Leland's bibliography of British writers is a unique record of the country's medieval literature before it was decimated by Henry VIII's agents. (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

John Leland: The man who saved medieval knowledge

Trawler crew, c1900. (Photo by Past Pix/SSPL/Getty Images)

Toilers of the deep: the lives of Edwardian deep sea fishermen

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The Abingdon Sword, an iron sword fragment and hilt found near Abingdon in Oxfordshire in 1874. The decoration on the sword hilt indicates this was a high status weapon dating from around AD 875. (Ashmolean Museum/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Fighting the Vikings . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.