Culture UK
Who are the British? Do they really drink tea, eat roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and never leave home without an umbrella? Find out more about true Brits; past and present, myth and legend, fact and fiction.
The Cottingley Fairies
“There are fairies at the bottom of our garden,” announces the opening line of a poem by Rose Fyleman first published in 1917. Coincidentally, that was also the year two intelligent and talented young conspirators managed to convince some very well-known people that there really were fairies living near Cottingley Beck, the stream that ran past the foot of their garden.
Crossword Panic of 1944
The planning of the D Day landings was almost complete – what could possibly go wrong?…
Piltdown Man: Anatomy of a Hoax
It was a storyline worthy of the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes; and Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, the creator of the great sleuth, was caught up in the plot…
King Henry III’s Polar Bear
Until the 19th century, the Tower of London played host to a whole menagerie of exotic animals…
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling, poet and author, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 in recognition of his great body of work, including ‘The Jungle Book’, ‘Kim’ and the poem ‘If’.
Hannah Beswick, the Mummy in the Clock
Taphophobia, the fear of being buried alive and waking up in one’s own grave, is the stuff of nightmares. Hannah Beswick had a pathological fear of premature burial, after her brother John was found to be still alive at his own funeral…
Did King Arthur Exist?
Did the legendary King Arthur exist? Is there any documentary evidence to support the story of Arthur and his Camelot?
Whiskyopolis
Campbeltown, a small town on the Mull of Kintyre peninsula, was once one of the richest towns per capita in all of Scotland and an important centre of industry. And that industry was whisky…
Honiton Lace
Nestled in the beautiful county of Devon is Honiton, a small town that made its mark in British history as the home of Honiton lace…
Isotopes and Richard III
A skeleton discovered in a car park in Leicester in 2013 displayed spinal curvature as well as evidence of a violent death. Were these the remains of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king who was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field? Luckily, isotopic analysis was on hand to help resolve this issue…