Non-Fiction

Charles Darwin argued that there was a clear link between monkeys and men but others said that the difference between the two was so great that there must be a missing link. And then, a hundred years ago, some old bones were found that showed a skeleton with some characteristics of a monkey and others of a man. But did this monkey-man ever exist? (440 words)

This is the story of the plague that spread across North Africa, the Middle East and Europe in the Middle Ages. The Black Death killed as much as a third of the populations of some countries and wiped out whole cities. The article looks at its causes and the terrible effects it had on the people and their ways of life. (1,700 words)

Not too long after James Maybrick married his much younger wife, she was on trial for his murder. She was convicted but released some years later and then a diary was found that seemed to be Maybrick's and which describes a series of horrible murders very similar to those committed by Jack the Ripper. (1,070 words)

Nat Turner was a slave in America and was never famous in his lifetime. We know him today because, one day, he decided to kill the people who took away his freedom. In a few hours, he murdered many white men, women and children. He was the first slave to use violence to fight against his slavery in the USA. This is his story. (385 words)

We know nothing about Socrates or his books. We only know what other people said or wrote about him. He died thousands of years ago in Greece. This story is probably not true but it is very, very short and easy to read! (110 words)

There can be few examples of cruelty and superstition more sadistic in western history than the treatment of so-called 'witches'. They were often older women living alone who were burnt, mutilated, drowned and crushed as agents of the Devil. This article explores this strange episode in history. (1,750 words)

Attitudes to the use of different drugs have changed a lot over the years. Right through the 19th century, the upper classes in Britain used opium. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychology, used cocaine morning and evening. And the French were regular smokers of hashish, including their greatest novelist, Flaubert. Now, though, they are illegal nearly everywhere in the world. (1,585 words)

A brief history of London's past and its present. Its transport system and its geography, its food and weather, but most of all its people. (1,145 words)

We remember Caligula as the craziest Roman emperor. He was only the head of the Roman Empire for four years but he did some terrible things. What did he do that was so bad? And how did it all start? (400 words).

We think we are the strongest animals on Earth. But is that really true? This is the surprising story of bacteria and viruses and the places they can live, how fast they can grow and how dangerous they can be. Bacteria and viruses can kill millions of people in just a few years (1470 words)

The story and the film are famous. A huge ship was travelling from Britain to the United States a hundred years ago. It was the largest ship in the world and it was full with more than two thousand people - rich and poor. But it hit an iceberg and most people died. This is the story of The Titanic (560 words)

Old age is not just a biological state but also a social concept. What was considered ‘old’ thirty years ago is a normal life span today and dying at a great age in Bangladesh might be a tragically young death in Japan. Governments want us to work longer but employers often want young recruits. Read about some of these issues in this article (820 words).

Geronimo was an Apache fighter, one of the last American Indians to fight against the coming of Europeans to the United States. He lived to be an old man, forbidden to travel and a prisoner on a small area of land. But, when he was young, he made many white Americans afraid and his name was used as a way of stopping children from behaving badly. This is his story (600 words).

The Ku Klux Klan started after the southern states of America lost the war against the North in 1865. They wanted black people to be slaves. They lost that fight, but they tried to keep their old way of life by stopping black people from voting. They raped the women, burnt their homes and killed many men. At one time, there were thousands of Ku Klux Klan but today that number is probably under 5,000. This is the story of the group (700 words).

Cricket is the most English of games, but it is far more popular in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh than it is in its home country. The Scots, Irish and Welsh never enjoyed it and foreigners can’t believe that a game can last for days and, in the end, there is sometimes no winner. (950 words)