The ‘Witch of Kings Cross’ Rosaleen Norton’s provocative art and unconventional life brought her notoriety in mid-twentieth century Australian society, but paved the way for a rich counter-cultural transformation.
To Chiang’s backers, he was a well-intentioned autocrat who put in place the foundations for Taiwan’s democratic transition; to his critics he was a sometimes brutal dictator who acted as he did out of necessity to ensure the survival of his party and its hold on power.
Born in the late sixteenth-century and cloistered from earliest childhood, Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana became Bologna’s only nun to publish her music, despite unrelenting clerical opposition.
Stresemann guided the Weimar Republic through its post-war crisis with agility and tenacity. The question of whether he might have been able to do the same following the Wall Street Crash and the ensuing chaos remains bitterly alluring.
He founded the city of Savannah and the state of Georgia, but this was just a short interlude in a life of conviction and adventure; shame and redemption.
A mathematician, a footballer, and very nearly a plumber, Valeriy Lobanovskyi was a leading light of the Soviet era and combined his intellectual interests with the love of the game.
The largely forgotten novelist Enid Bagnold was an acerbic and yet tender author. National Velvet was years ahead of its time.
Epicharis – a former slave and a foreigner – participated in the doomed Pisonian conspiracy against the Emperor Nero. In Tacitus’ depiction of her and in her rich after-life in western drama, we find a woman of remarkable integrity who fought the good fight against tyranny.
Inventor, sculptor, and taxidermist by trade, Carl Akeley was an early pioneer of wildlife photography. His life’s lessons still echo in the effort to conserve wildlife.
Philip Thicknesse, 18th century writer, libertine, and scandal maker, found joy in his countryside retreat – a grotto inspired by the romantic fashion for ‘ornamental hermits’.
A great lover of children and social reform, Janusz Korczak’s heroic death was matched by his zeal for educating the poorest of Polish society.
After unpromising beginnings and innumerable controversies, Pittacus, seventh-century ruler of Mytilene on Lesbos, should be remembered as one of the great leaders of his age.
This astonishingly inventive, often radical, composer and musician, Priaulx Rainier, whose influence, imagination, and friendship were cherished by her artistic contemporaries – Barbara Hepworth and Michael Tippett among them – deserves to be better remembered.
Driven by a desire for intellectual and spiritual truth, Raïssa Maritain’s writings search for peace and justice – but are sadly forgotten in our own time.
‘Good King René’ is remembered for the chivalry of his words and deeds, despite his numerous setbacks in the cruel arena of medieval politics.
Dreamer, looter, pyromaniac, fantasist, Edward Daniel Clarke brought back from Egypt the single most important find in the history of Egyptology – the Rosetta Stone.
Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony, was an artistic polymath who helped re-shape elite culture in the Enlightenment age.
The Bordeaux-born teacher and scholar, Decimus Magnus Ausonius, exemplified broad-mindedness. His life offers us a glimpse into the last days of the Roman Empire and the value of toleration in a polarised society.
All but forgotten, Sid Cara played a pioneering role in French and Algerian politics and left behind a troubled legacy.
Socialite and literary pioneer – Anna de Noailles was a bright star in the firmament of the Parisian Belle Époque.
At a time of moral and political crisis, the medieval poet pioneered a daring and emotive vernacular style which inspired generations of Italian literature.
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