Volume 68 Issue 12 December 2018

Any Book You Like

A professionally organised covert industry satisfied the public’s demand for illicit books in the years before the French Revolution.

Strangers welcome: the initial invitation to 24 Dutch (beginning with John Powells) and, beneath them, six Walloon masters (beginning with Robert Goddarte) to settle in Norwich, 1565.

Welcoming the Strangers

Norwich prospered in the 16th century, thanks to an influx of immigrants, who arrived fleeing persecution.

Impartial reviewer: Woman Reading, by Lovis Corinth, 1888.

Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover (Quote)

How does the reader decide if a history book is worth their time?

Panettone, Italy’s Favourite Christmas Cake

Rich enough to appeal to lords and dukes, the success of panettone is down to its festive, egalitarian simplicity.

The Life of Thomas Cromwell

A master historian’s definitive study of one of the most astonishing and influential careers in English history.

A great hardship: mother and children, London, early 20th century.

Who's In A Family?

Changing views of illegitimate children raise both moral and economic issues.

Paradise, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Adam and Eve

The fall of man and the concept of Original Sin.

‘And nightly meadow-fairies, look you sing’: illustration for Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, by Hugh Thomson, 1910.

Away with the Faeries

Folklore, fairies and demonic spirits in the sceptical 17th century.

Manifest Destiny

James K. Polk’s first State of the Union Address, on 2 December 1845, promoted the concept that the US should encompass all of North America.

‘Les cosaques littéraires en action’, censors remove books from the king’s library, 18th-century engraving.

From the Thirty Years War to the ancient civilisation of Iran, from Anglo-American rivalries in the desert to the persecution of indigenous peoples, historians select their favourite books of the past year.