Resources
Principal content
Why communism was all Greek to me
Growing up in a communist dictatorship, Péter Zilahy found escape from Soviet propaganda in mythology, which also offered solutions to everyday struggles
An advocate for China’s rural poor
Liu Yao was born a peasant. He taught himself the law and became a campaigner for land rights – until he was accused of inciting unrest and sentenced to prison
Britain’s first female diplomats
For 26 years – from their entry into the Foreign Office until the marriage bar was lifted – the UK’s women diplomats had to choose between a husband and public service
East Germany’s shopping trip to the west
The ‘100 Westmark’ project brings together items purchased by East Germans with the DM100 welcome money they received after crossing the border
The greening of Greenland
The glaciers of the world’s biggest island are speeding up and its ice sheet is disappearing at a rate faster and more worrying than science predicted
Searching for missing relatives in Poland
The Red Cross runs the country’s biggest family-tracing organisation and has helped reunite hundreds of thousands of those separated during the second world war
The first era of photography
The British Library unveils an important archive of historic images tracing the development of the medium from its beginnings in 1839 to the early 1900s
An American’s journey to Mecca
A left-of-centre South Asian American living in New York joins his family and more than three million pilgrims to perform hajj – and is seduced by the experience
Why governments are selling Vitamin D short
Research suggests that vitamin D could prevent cancer, multiple sclerosis and many other diseases, but its advocates are struggling to convince medical authorities
Images of Istanbul
While doing research for his memoir in the archives of Ara Güler, Orhan Pamuk finds melancholic photographs of backstreet scenes that reflect the mood of his childhood
