BBC History Magazine

BBC History Magazine aims to shed new light on the past to help you make more sense of the world today. Fascinating stories from contributors are the leading experts in their fields, so whether they're exploring Ancient Egypt, Tudor England or the Second World War, you'll be reading the latest, most thought-provoking historical research. BBC History Magazine brings history to life with informative, lively and entertaining features written by the world's leading historians and journalists and is a captivating read for anyone who's interested in the past.

WELCOME

THREE THINGS I'VE LEARNED THIS MONTH

THIS ISSUE'S CONTRIBUTORS

ANNIVERSARIES • DANNY BIRD highlights events that took place in September in history

“This is the biggest history news story of my career” • The Bayeux Tapestry is set to go on display in the UK next year, almost a millennium after its creation. Following the announcement of the news, 10 historians reveal their hopes and fears about the loan

MICHAEL WOOD ON… • THE ORIGINS OF THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY

LETTERS

BBC History Magazine

How I uncovered Victoria's secret love • There have long been whispers of a romance between the queen and her Scottish servant John Brown, but nothing concrete to support them. Now Fern Riddell, author of an explosive new book, reveals how she turned sleuth to track down evidence of their secret passion

England's colossus • The rise of Æthelstan was as important a moment in English history as 1066 and Magna Carta. On the 1,100th anniversary of his coronation, David Woodman salutes a king who forged a nation

What have the Romans Etruscans ever done for us? • The wealthy civilisation that dominated the Italian peninsula before the Romans left a legacy that's full of surprises. Lucy Shipley explains why we have the Etruscans to thank for the way we write, the shape of our towns, Renaissance art – and even horror movies

Q&A • A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

DID YOU KNOW…?

INTERVIEW / KAVITA PURI • On the 80th anniversary of VJ Day, broadcaster Kavita Puri – presenter of a new BBC Radio 4 series on the Second World War in Asia – considers why this was the conflict's forgotten theatre

The lost mayor of Hiroshima • The world's first nuclear attack brought to an end a turbulent half century in Japanese history – one that Senkichi Awaya witnessed first-hand. Iain MacGregor reveals how one man's fate mirrored the rise and fall of a nation

JAPAN'S CENTURY OF CHANGE • From global rise to nuclear attack

The Atomic Plague • In the wake of the nuclear attacks on Japan, the official Allied line was that radiation sickness was not a danger. Yet, as Steve O'Hagan reveals, the first western journalist to witness the effects on the people of Hiroshima told a very different story

The sinister secrets of Samuel Pepys • His diaries are revered for their kaleidoscopic evocation of Restoration England. Yet a fresh analysis of Pepys' world-famous journals – carried out by Guy de la Bédoyère – reveals a man with a proclivity for coercion and sexual violence

BOOKS

“Christianity didn't invent itself as an empire from nothing: it adapted existing Roman structures” • ALICE ROBERTS speaks to Danny Bird about the evolution of the new religion that swept across the Roman empire and beyond

Information superhighways • ANDREW PETTEGREE reviews a book that charts how news networks flourished across Europe even before the advent of printing technology

Hearts of darkness • Dan Jones discusses Lion Hearts, the concluding volume of his Hundred Years' War trilogy

Crucial contributions • MATTHEW JONES is impressed by a new account of the Manhattan Project that spotlights...