In early 1956 Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party, and the Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin arrived on a diplomatic mission to Britain aboard the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze. For the duration of the mission the cruiser was docked in Her Majesty’s Navala Base, Portsmouth. The mission came at a delicate time. Stalin had been
For most people, the history of England begins with the Norman Conquest in 1066. The line of kings is generally traced to William I, the first Norman king who invaded across the channel and defeated the Saxons under Harold Godwinson, as famously depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. This is certainly a convenient way to do
There is a reason that, in the public image of the medieval executioner they are almost always envisaged wearing a hooded mask. Execution was a bloody trade, and for many it came with an amount of social ostracising: better to remain anonymous then be known as a butcher. In point of fact this was not