Weird and wonderful history

Portrait of Oliver Cromwell. This is one of several replicas of a portrait by Sir Peter Lely. Cromwell is supposed to have said: “I desire you would use all your skill to paint your picture truly like me… but remark all these roughness, pimples, warts and everything as you see me. Otherwise, I will never pay a farthing for it.”

Why do we say ‘warts and all’?

Bill Boaks, c 1970.

Great British eccentrics: 7 of the most peculiar people in history

Winston Churchill with a bulldog mascot as he leaves the Wanstead Conservative Club in his Woodford, Essex constituency on general election day, 23 February 1950. (Photo by Central Press/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Second World War

Q&A What is the significance of the British Bulldog?

Medieval banquet: saying grace before meal. From an engraving of an illuminated medieval Royal Manuscript. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Medieval kebabs and pasta: 5 foods you (probably) didn’t know were being eaten in the Middle Ages

The ‘Spruce Girls’ wearing their specially made wooden bathing suits in 1929. (Credit: © Historic Collection / Alamy)

Second World War

6 weird inventions in history

'The Cricket on the Hearth' published in 1845 by Charles Dickens. (Image by Getty)

Cats in history: 3 curious tributes

B40B22 Runes MAESHOWE ORKNEY Norseman Viking Runes on Neolithic Burial tomb chamber stone wall blocks

A brief history of graffiti and creativity

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QC by CWL

8 weird and wonderful pictures from the past

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When Hitler took cocaine

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Showering, teeth brushing and donning underwear: the strange history of our daily routine

A portrait of Elizabeth I.

The enchanting history of charisma

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In pictures: Victorian life

Georgian London (Getty Images)

10 dangers of Georgian London

The daily hustle and bustle in the busy fishing port of Newlyn in Penzance, Cornwall, c1870. (Photo by Gibson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Top 10 historical Cornish words

(GERMANY OUT) United Kingdom - England - Blackpool: People on the beach and Blackpool Tower - undatedVintage property of ullstein bild (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

In pictures: Blackpool beach through time