One of the favourite sweet treats at Christmas is the mince pie. This crumbly pastry is filled with fruit, often soaked in brandy and flavoured with citrus and mild spice. However the mince pie was originally a savoury pie – and not even round!

The murder of Thomas Becket and the manner of his death in 1170 shocked the nation. His tomb in Canterbury Cathedral became a place of pilgrimage as tales of miracles spread…

“I never ride in from Hyde Park Corner… but the ghosts of an army of horsemen ride with me,” wrote Roland Collins in 1967. If the ghosts of all those who have ridden or driven in Hyde Park were visible, it would create the ultimate pageant of British history…