John of Gaunt
Whispers of ‘usurper’ at the Lancastrian court
When Henry Bolingbroke deposed his cousin Richard II, the populace at first united under his command. But was it a sign of divine retribution when his health dramatically deteriorated?
1386 and all that
Sam Leith describes the frequently lonely, squalid and hapless life of the father of English poetry
Recent crime fiction
Stuart MacBride’s new novel, A Song for the Dying (HarperCollins, £16.99, Spectator Bookshop, £14.99), is markedly darker in tone than…
