All Articles

Before Columbus discovered what he thought was India at the end of the fifteenth century, the Americas were unknown to Europeans. Yet, within a few decades, the people of the southern area of the continent were dying, enslaved or in hiding. (900 words)

For ten years Robert Hendy-Freegard somehow managed to keep five people in fear of assassination by the IRA and effectively imprisoned in their homes. Having won their confidence, he took their money and many years of their lives. (2,040 words)

There are few places in the world as secretive and as little understood as North Korea. Although the South is booming, its Communist northern neighbour seems on the verge of starvation at the same time as it develops its nuclear weapons programme. This article tells us something about the founder of the country. (1,800 words)

Mountains take our breath away. People get up early to watch the sun rise over them or charter planes to fly around them and climbers risk death trying to ascend them. Find out how mountains were formed and how important they have been throughout human history. (930 words)

Patty Hearst was born into a rich and powerful American family but in 1974 she was kidnapped by a terrorist group. Some weeks later she turned up on security camera footage taking part in the armed robbery of a bank in San Francisco. She was arrested and sentenced to 35 years in prison but was eventually pardoned. Read and listen to this story to find out why. (1,170 words)

Oscar Wilde wrote many short stories and this one, about an innocent young man, an artist and a beggar who is not quite what he seems, is both funny and up-lifting. (1,685 words)

Dickens wrote this story in 1866 about a railway disaster. It’s his best short work, perhaps because he’d been in a train accident himself the year before. However, Dickens does more than describe his own experience: he explores several accidents through the eyes of a signalman responsible for the line. We’re unsure whether to trust the man’s strange story or think him insane. (3,895 words)

Rivers play a vital role in the earth's water system and the development of human civilisation. This is an introduction to the great rivers of the world and the impacts that they have on people's lives. (1,025 words)

The Spanish Civil War was one of the great battle grounds between the left and right wing during the 20th Century and it attracted artists, poets and intellectuals to the republican cause. This is the background to the conflict, how the republic lost and how General Franco then held on to power. (1,315 words)

Two friends move into a house that they don’t have to pay for so they can save money. Before long though, the dark history of the house and their nightmares make them realise their mistake. (4,870 words)

A political scandal and miscarriage of justice in the late 19th century based on antisemitism caused a split in French society and had far-reaching global consequences. When the French found they had a spy in their military they blamed the face that didn't fit - a Jewish one, rather rather than the real culprit. An innocent military officer spent many years in prison as the scandal unfolded over the next 10 years. (1,250 words)

A nineteenth century equivalent of a disaster movie! A man's cycling holiday is interrupted by a natural catastrophe and terrifying escapes from near-death experiences as he tries to get home to save his family certain death. (4,020 words)

Stephen Crane is famous for stories about the American Civil War. This is a vivid tale of accidental bravery that sees a young man go to get water from a well in the middle of a fierce battle in order to save face. In the event though a genuinely noble act of kindness marks him out as the hero he doesn't believe himself to be. (2,800 words)

Toussant L'ouverture was a black slave in Haiti and, yet, he could take on the might of Napoleon's French Empire and secure independence for his island nation. Although he was eventually captured, he was an inspiration to his people and freed them from the burden of colonialism and slavery. This is his story (1,870 words).

When Europeans arrived in South America, they made empires and became unbelievably rich. They killed tens of thousands of local people but they also changed how the world ate. They discovered new foods that they exported and they imported crops like wheat. So began the great food exchange that changed the world. (345 words)