James Osborne

The Sound of Music has long sat among the greatest historical films of all time – and become a staple of the winter TV schedule. But how much of it is a true story, and what's the real history of the von Trapp family?

Cats might have been sacred in ancient Egypt, but they were far from cherished pets. Discover why our assumptions about their treatment draw far more on modern sensibilities than historical reality

For most people in Tudor England, an ordinary diet was more structured – and often more varied – than we might expect

Ancient Rome didn’t abandon its gods overnight. The rise of Christianity was a slow transformation of the cult-based religious order that had structured Roman life for centuries

As Europe lay in ruins following the end of the Second World War, Churchill’s instinct was to punish the surviving Nazi leadership without a trial. How was the decision made to stage the Nuremberg Trials instead?

Pliny the Elder was an intellectual powerhouse of ancient Rome. Though not a physician, in describing the ideal daily routine of a Roman gentleman he revealed how the ancient elite believed health could be improved

From the Suez Crisis and Vietnam, to 21st-century political tensions, the alliance between Britain and the United States has been declared dead – or dying – many times

A fresh re-reading of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle suggests that King Harold Godwinson didn’t race south by land after Stamford Bridge, but instead used a coordinated naval strategy. What does that mean for how we should understand the events of 1066?

What did the people of the early modern period, including the Tudors, believe about sleep?

As familiar notions suggest, medieval medicine was influenced by herbs and humours. But these factors were part of a broader holistic system in which emotion and lifestyle were also considered essential to staying healthy

As long-lasting monarchies fell across the 20th century, Britain’s endured – sustained by wartime victory, constitutional adaptability and the long, steady presence of Elizabeth II