So, what is your connection to the once turbulent Tyneside town of Jarrow? Perhaps the roots of your family tree, like mine, are bound to the streets once lined by rows of terraced houses with multiple occupancies? Are your ancestors...

Since the Arab Spring and anti-Ghaddafi uprising on the streets of Benghazi on 14th February 2011, Libyans have known little or no respite from violence. In the battles to topple Muammar Ghaddafi his enormous ‘Armory of Islam’ was looted, and...

My fascination with the Highlands goes back a long way. Cycle tours in my schoolboy days and then being a keen hillwalker and Munro-bagger intensified my interest in the story of the Highlands and its people. My interest in the...

Over the last twenty-five years there’s been a quiet revolution going on in British archaeology. During this time, the evidence from archaeological excavations has been joined by objects discovered by members of the public. These have been recorded of through...

There are, at a rough estimate, around 1,575 former Royal Observer Corp facilities scattered throughout Great Britain. The one at the top of Mill Hill in my home village of Brancaster in Norfolk had always held a grim fascination for...

I am not Truro born, nor do I live in the city, and my knowledge is confined to its most iconic buildings and celebrated sons.  A survey of the many books about the city, websites and a walking tour with...

When Amberley Publishing emailed me out of the blue to ask if I would be interested in writing a book for them, it came as a bit of a surprise. It turned out that a commissioning editor had seen some...

This book has been about 15 years in the making. Back in 2005, I was Director of Communications for a drug charity called DrugScope. The world of illegal drug use and drug addiction is an extremely emotional and polarised environment...

Over the centuries, wearing make-up has often been mocked as little more than frippery, on occasions applied with intent to deceive and, in more god-fearing times in history, even downright evil. The truth is cosmetics have always been important. In...

In an extract from his book Blithe Spirits: An Imaginative History of the Poltergeist, SD Tucker asks whether or not ghosts might be better thought of as being funny than as frightening. We do not think of ghosts as being...