Portraits

portraits

Virginia Cowles, a woman in search of trouble

In her brilliant career as a war correspondent, Virginia Cowles travelled throughout Europe and North Africa during the Second World War, publicising the plight of a besieged Brita..

Gordon F. Sander February 17, 2025

portraits

Frederick Selous, the archetypal great white hunter

The adventurer Frederick Courteney Selous epitomised the Victorian ideal of the gun-toting, daring frontiersman as a force for civilisation, and lent it an everlasting allure.

Maria Golia January 30, 2025

portraits

Sylvia Beach, the bookseller who defied the Nazis

In her Parisian bookshop, Shakespeare and Company, Sylvia Beach fashioned a space where writers could experiment, create and collaborate. She leaves a powerful legacy as a patron o..

Katie Tobin January 17, 2025

portraits

Rahab, the Old Testament’s female super spy

Rahab the Harlot is one of the earliest examples of an intelligence operative, and her exploits illustrate the importance ordinary individuals can have in military operations.

Rose Mary Sheldon December 16, 2024

portraits

Thomas Phelippes, the perfect Elizabethan spy

Thomas Phelippes, cryptanalyst and agent runner, is the closest template we have from the 16th century to a modern intelligence officer, a man who prided himself on his mastery of ..

Stephen Alford December 6, 2024

portraits

R.A. Markus, historian of the secular

Was St Augustine's thought a forerunner of liberalism? The works of the historian of Late Antiquity, R.A. Markus, are a good place to unearth the foundations of secular society.

Samuel Rubinstein November 20, 2024

portraits

Angus MacLean – father, soldier, liberator

Angus MacLean's path through the Great Depression, the Second World War, the liberation of Dachau Concentration Camp and a career in the military during the Cold War personified an..

Aaron MacLean November 11, 2024

portraits

Eleanor of Provence, a force to be reckoned with

Eleanor of Provence, wife of Henry III and mother of Edward I, was perhaps the most important female political figure in 13th-century England. Described as a ‘virago’, or female wa..

Caroline Burt October 29, 2024

portraits

Krystyna Skarbek, Churchill’s favourite spy

Although Polish by birth, Krystyna Skarbek was not just the first woman to serve Britain as a special agent during the Second World War, she was also the country's longest-serving ..

Clare Mulley October 18, 2024