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The making of the myth of El Dorado
The first searchers for the most fabled place on earth
Mar 27
•
Mathew Lyons
23
9
7
The Massacre at Paris: Christopher Marlowe, the Rose Playhouse and me
That time I trod the boards on the London stage…
Mar 5
•
Mathew Lyons
28
7
7
Blood, treasure, and defence of the realm: the politics of piracy in Elizabethan England
How providential nationalism and naked plunder came together on the high seas
Feb 20
•
Mathew Lyons
37
10
9
Shakespeare, Catholicism, and pre-Reformation culture
How the long withdrawing shadow of festive England shaped the Elizabethan stage
Feb 11
•
Mathew Lyons
29
16
8
Russell Hoban: inside the mystery of language
A celebration of the profound mischiefs and magic of his work
Feb 6
•
Mathew Lyons
42
26
10
Nottingham alabaster: objects of strangeness, mystery and devotion
How the English Reformation tried to obliterate a unique medieval artform
Jan 23
•
Mathew Lyons
38
20
16
The fall of the Duke of Norfolk
Come at the Queen, you best not miss…
Jan 8
•
Mathew Lyons
21
2
4
Beyond The Jungle Book: Kipling, Orwell, Rushdie and me
What Kipling's critics get wrong about his writing
Dec 12, 2025
•
Mathew Lyons
56
44
13
The Midnight Folk: memory, magic, and consolation
The private griefs and terrors behind John Masefield's classic children's book
Nov 20, 2025
•
Mathew Lyons
60
18
12
Into Great Silence
Exploring the meaning of Philip Gröning's extraordinary film, twenty years on
Nov 13, 2025
•
Mathew Lyons
45
33
19
The acid-tongued ambassadress
The indomitable Lady Walburga Paget, our woman at the nineteenth-century courts of imperial Europe
Nov 6, 2025
•
Mathew Lyons
24
6
7
Louis MacNeice and Autumn Journal
One of the 20th century's great history poems – and a joyous confession of faith in everyday life
Oct 8, 2025
•
Mathew Lyons
30
4
11
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