Contents
Drunkenness, debauchery and dark dealings
Suffragette struggles with authority
Hilda Burkett and Florence Tunks and the Bath Hotel case
A plea for action against the George Inn
Police ‘sting’ operations against clairvoyants
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s defence of spiritualism
Dealing with ‘offensive litter’
Calls to moderate indecency in ‘Jekyll-and-Hyde’ Park
The Kray twins’ father writes in support of his sons
King John to his advisors and his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine
Letter from Richard III to his chancellor, Bishop John Russell
The Duke of Norfolk, to Thomas Cromwell, Lord Privy Seal
Letter to the Prince of Orange inviting him to become England’s king
Secret diplomacy or veiled criticism?
Charles Edward Stuart to his father, James Edward Stuart
Prison governor’s report on a family visit to Diana Mosley
Gandhi’s letters to Sir Stafford Cripps
An attempt to assuage fears of immigration
Clement Attlee to Labour MPs on the arrival of Empire Windrush
‘The greatest and most horrible crimes’
Churchill writes on the mass deportation of Hungarian Jewry
Princess Margaret exchanges views with Margaret Thatcher
Mikhail Gorbachev to Margaret Thatcher on her resignation
Expeditions, foreign policy and espionage
Brutal attack on the road to Timbuktu
Letter from Major Alexander Gordon Laing to Hanmer Warrington
The start of the ‘special relationship’?
Abraham Lincoln writes to Queen Victoria requesting a royal visit
An ‘extremely critical position’
General Charles Gordon to Major General Redvers Buller
Words of warning to the mother of Edith Cavell
Letter to Churchill regarding the Ultra secret
Restrained words to a disgraced president
Harold Wilson’s letter of thanks to Richard Nixon
A brother’s desperate quest for information
Letter from Noor Khan’s brother, Vilayat Khan
Raisa Gorbacheva’s potato recipe letter
‘Overcoming the division of our continent’
Margaret Thatcher’s letter of congratulations to Helmut Kohl
Sir Francis Drake’s report on the Battle of Gravelines
Home front anguish during the English Civil War
An unknown woman speaks out about suffering
Political plea for a privateer
Despatch from General George Washington to Sir Guy Carleton
Horatio Nelson to William Marsden, Secretary of the Admiralty
The Lane down to your farm is dark …’
Words of warning during the Swing Riots
The War Office to Lord Kitchener on provision for Indian troops
Striking a blow against would-be strikers
Letter authorising the arrest of striking workers
Siegfried Sassoon’s state of mind
Letter to the editor from Brigadier-General George Cockerill
Should Stalingrad receive the George Cross?
A letter from three shorthand typists to Winston Churchill
Churchill and the macaques of Gibraltar
Correspondence concerning ape welfare
Letter about the state of air raid shelters
The exchange of German and Palestinian civilian internees
Princess Elizabeth’s letter to her stepmother, Katherine Parr
Reassurance from a cast-off bride
Letter from Anne of Cleves to her brother
The final letter from Earl Dudley to Elizabeth I
Letter from Lily Wilde to the governor of Reading Gaol
A father’s desperate letter to Stepney Barnardo’s children’s home
An outrage of Christian principles
An appeal to stop the publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Princess Margaret’s marriage correspondence
Art, science and popular culture
Celebrity spotting in eighteenth-century Venice
Elizeus Burges to Thomas Pelham-Holles
Charles Darwin accepts the position of naturalist on HMS Beagle
Lucian Freud’s letter to Lillian Somerville
An artist enquires after the well-being of her work
Letter from Barbara Hepworth during the Festival of Britain
A scholarly prisoner and books from a friend
Nelson Mandela to Sir John Maud
A widow’s appeal to ‘bring Dylan home’
Letter from Caitlin Thomas to local authorities
Beatles’ ‘peerage’ makes waves in Mexico
Letter from the Foreign Office to the British Embassy in Mexico
Hounding the Home Office on TV censorship