Non-Fiction

Genghis Khan’s name is associated in the West with fear and it's true that he would kill all the men in any city that refused to surrender to him and take the women and children as slaves. But he also built an army and an empire based on loyalty and fairness stretching from Korea to Poland. (1,320 words)

George Washington fought for the British Army against the French but fifteen years later, he became the general who forced the British out of America. Why did this loyal supporter of the British change his mind? (1,070 words)

Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped when she was a girl of eleven years of age and became the mother of her captor’s children. She lived in a tent in his garden for nearly twenty years until a suspicious university administrator called the police. This is her astonishing story. Read about her and the man who kept her prisoner. (1,550 words)

Jeremy Bamber was sent to prison for the multiple murders of his family in 1986. It was a nasty and strange case. There were jealousies and rivalries and the police made some very odd mistakes. Bamber still insists he is innocent . (1,390 words)

Pi is one of the most important and strangest ideas in mathematics. It can't be exactly calculated and it is both irrational and transcendental. What does that mean? Find out here! (700 words)

A short history of rugby and the rules of the game. It all started by accident during the 19th century at an English public school called Rugby, hence its name, and it's been growing in popularity ever since.

The Washington Sniper took his ex-girlfriend’s teenage son out one day in 2002 and started shooting people he had never seen before and did not know from the back of his car. All to cover up the planned murder of his wife. (995 words)

Wigs have a long history. The Romans and ancient Egyptians wore them. Three hundred years ago wigs were really heavy and worn mainly by men. Now they're worn more by popstars and people who have lost their hair through illness. (750 words)

Crime is just as real in wartime as it is in peace. This article looks at how crime changed during the Second World War in Britain and how some crimes disappeared while others became more common. (700 words)

A few hundred years ago, a diplomat in Istanbul fell in love with a flower not found in western Europe. He sent some tulip bulbs home so that his friends could grow them in their gardens. Some time later tulips became a craze in Holland and people even bought and sold the bulbs while they were still in the ground as prices rose higher and higher. Then, suddenly, it all stopped and many people lost everything. (890 words)

Jimmy Thorpe’ is not well-known today but he was a goalkeeper for Sunderland football club in the 1930s. He died when he was 23 after a heart attack caused by being kicked while he had the ball in his hands. The rules of the game were changed as a result (290 words).

A Ponzi scheme is one that gives an incredibly high interest rate because it uses money from new investors to pay dividends to existing investors. Charles Ponzi was a charming and enterprising con man who robbed thousands of people of their savings before his scheme collapsed and he went to prison for the last time. (1,530 words)

Before Columbus discovered what he thought was India at the end of the fifteenth century, the Americas were unknown to Europeans. Yet, within a few decades, the people of the southern area of the continent were dying, enslaved or in hiding. (900 words)

For ten years Robert Hendy-Freegard somehow managed to keep five people in fear of assassination by the IRA and effectively imprisoned in their homes. Having won their confidence, he took their money and many years of their lives. (2,040 words)

There are few places in the world as secretive and as little understood as North Korea. Although the South is booming, its Communist northern neighbour seems on the verge of starvation at the same time as it develops its nuclear weapons programme. This article tells us something about the founder of the country. (1,800 words)