DECEMBER 2018

CONTENTS

Features

Every month

Explore the historical heartland of Britain’s ceramics industry, on page 82

22 Like father, like son? Henry VIII wasn’t as di erent from his dour, penny-pinching father as his PR machine suggested, writes Tracy Borman

28 The last survivors Steve Humphries recalls his conversations with six extraordinary people who lived through the First World War

33 The King Arthur fraud Nick Higham argues that the warrior-king was the invention of a writer with an axe to grind with the Anglo-Saxons

38 The radical Walter Ralegh Anna Beer on how the famous explorer’s incendiary political writings in uenced Oliver Cromwell

44 Max Hastings on Vietnam The journalist and historian describes the carnage and chaos of the Vietnam War, and his memories of reporting on it

50 The horror of Peterloo Stephen Bates reveals how the massacre of 1819 became a cause célèbre in the struggle for full su rage in Britain

58 Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt What can the three leaders’ letters to one another tell us about the coalition against Nazism? David Reynolds investigates

6 ANNIVERSARIES 11 HISTORY NOW 1 1 The latest history news

1 4 Backgrounder: homelessness 16 Past notes: vinyl

18 LETTERS 21 MICHAEL WOOD’S VIEW 65 BOOKS Thelatestreleasesreviewed,plus AdamZamoyskidiscusseshisbook on Napoleon Bonaparte

79 TV & RADIO The pick of new history programmes

82 OUT &ABOUT 82 History Explorer: British ceramics

87 Five things to do in December

93 MISCELLANY 93 Q&A and quiz 94 Samantha’s recipe corner 95 Prize crossword

98 MY HISTORY HERO Sir Lenny Henry chooses SamuelColeridge-Taylor

56 SUBSCRIBE

Save when you subscribe today

USPS Identification Statement

BBC HISTORY (ISSN 1469-8552)

(USPS 024-177) December 2018 is published 13 times a year under licence from BBC Worldwide by Immediate Media Company Bristol Ltd, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN, UK. Distributed in the US by Circulation Specialists, Inc., 2 Corporate Drive, Suite 945, Shelton CT 06484-6238. Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, CT and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE, PO Box 37495, Boone, IA 50037-0495.

33 Was King Arthur a historical gure?

I N G

/ H U G H C O W L

I M A G E S

/ G E T T Y

I E G O Z E M

/ G E O R G

I D G E M A N

/A L A M Y/ B R

I L M S

I M O N Y F

T E S T

22 Did Henry VIII escape his father’s shadow?

28 Testimony from six of the Great War’s last survivors

4

BBC History Magazine BBC History Magazine