A letter that mistakenly made its way into the Freud Archives reveals hidden tensions in the history of psychoanalysis - and, as Agnes Meadows explores, in the nature of archives themselves.
Madeleine Goodall discusses the radical life of Eliza Sharples, whose letters to freethinking poet Thomas Cooper in the mid-19th century depict an idealistic figure struggling to survive.
What does the history of anarchist books tell us about the diffusion of subversive ideas across national borders and long time spans? Anna Regener maps how state suppression has failed to prevent the 'worlding' of anarchist literature
In the early years of the National Health Service, the medical romance novels published by Mills & Boon became a unlikely voice for progressive change in the provision of health care and the professional advancement of women. Agnes…
What might be the links - real and metaphorical - between Anne Frank's story of exile and persecution and the work of C.S Lewis? Margaret Reynolds explores.
What politically contested narratives lie beyond the East End proper? Jason Finch returns to his ancestral roots in Newham, making the case that spatial literary analysis can shed light on outer London's conflictual past.
Creative writing is not a conventional primary source for historians of eastern Africa. However, examining marginalised actors’ histories can be invaluable in filling the gaps left by traditional archives.
In commissioning this feature, editorial fellow Rachel Moss asked contributors: how can we radically re-imagine the writing of history? Over the next few weeks, our contributors reply with creative new methods, sources and forms that they…
For our new series on Writing Radically we asked: how can we radically re-imagine the writing of history? Will Pooley discusses the radical role of grammar.
Frank O'Hara insisted that poetry should be 'between two persons instead of two pages'. The enduring friendship between Allen Ginsberg and Frank O'Hara reveals the ways in which it was possible to resist the post-war ideals of…
How can historical fiction, and the heritage sites that it features, help us think differently about the past? Lucy Arnold steps into Worcester Cathedral to take a local look at Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.
How did Victorian working-class women writers use the radical press to relay their experience of the factory floor? Kirstie Blair introduces Sarah Ann Robinson, a virtually unknown Lancashire weaver and poet, whose verse is being collected…
Caroline Nielsen introduces you to one of the best-selling ghost story collections of all time and to the foremost writers on psychic phenomenon of the nineteenth century: Mrs Catherine Crowe.
On the 750th anniversary of its rebuilding, Fay Bound Alberti calls for engagement with the politics of commemoration at Westminster Abbey and makes the case that more women authors, playwrights and poets must be included at Poets' Corner.
During the Second World War, some 34,000 women were used as prostitutes in Nazi-run brothels across occupied Europe. Their forgotten experience provides the inspiration for Mary Chamberlain's new novel The Hidden.
How can the forgotten archive of Irish-Jewish writer, Leslie Daiken, illuminate the radical networks and transnational solidarity of the Irish Left in the 1930s?
Norma Clarke explores how contemporary models of crowd-funding - allowing authors to by-pass conventional publishers to fund, print and disseminate their books - echo eighteenth-century practices of publishing by subscription, used by…
