Miss Perdrix had been teaching for many long years at the Ecole Alsacienne in Paris, but she could only teach up until the sixth row; any...

As Simone de Beauvoir once wrote of her , “A saint would sell his soul to Lucifer to see her dance.”  If God created woman, the devil...

“The name begins with a caress, only to end with a crack of the whip,” the poet Jean Cocteau had said of her: Marlene Dietrich sailed the...

Shirley savoured every moment she spent at Robert’s side, casting long, languorous glances at her lover. She adored his thick hair that...

The German advance had been relentless; using their Blitzkrieg tactics, the Wehrmacht had crossed over Luxembourg and Belgium, then...

“These guys just don’t get it,” grumbled Branch Rickey, without realising that his grandson was listening. “These New York politicians...

John arose at five in the morning, slamming a hand on his alarm clock, slipping on his robe and slippers and sitting down at his desk....

Since time immemorial, war had always been the preserve of men. During the Second World War, only a handful of women were able to...

In the late afternoon, the son of Jor-El was posing for a self-portrait in front of the skyscrapers of Metropolis. He had no need for a...

In the Norman village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, just above Utah beach, Hugues and Odette remembered well the days of the German...

Flamenco was both energy and sentiment; it was life, death, sorrow, destiny, passion and liberty. It was a universal language, strict yet...

During the Second World War, the widespread destruction of entire towns and cities became an everyday occurrence. Measures were taken to...

Fencing had been around since the dawn of time; no sooner had man learned to work with wood and iron than he began making weapons for his...

In the US Army they came to be known as the Monuments Men – a squad of thirteen different nationalities, most of whom were in their...

Balloons and airships were all the rage these days, and now an aerostat racing meet was being held in Paris. How wonderful!  Balloon...

“How can one be expected to govern a country that has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?” Charles de Gaulle once famously...

Out on his ranch, Lyndon B. Johnson, the thirty-sixth president of the United States, looked out of his top-floor window. This year’s...

“Never travel on your own,” was a dictum here in the Great North. Noah the gold prospector was not alone on this spring day, for he was...

In Roman times graveyards were kept far away from the cities, but in Highgate cemetery, London, the dead rested close to the living. The...

Tonight at the Paris Olympia, the heavy red curtains were drawn across the stage. Behind them the stage was full to bursting, and before...