In 1828, thousands gathered in Bury St Edmunds to watch William Corder hang for the murder of Maria Marten, his lover, in a ...

He ends his book with a quiet, magnificent diatribe which should make most readers duck, most smug old men-of-letters blush. “I can no longer herald a renaissance; it is too late now.

Wonder how much the tariffs were on this? A trove of books written by medieval-era French monks were bound with bizarre “hairy” covers from far-away animals — shedding light on a booming ...