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The one built environment issue on which there is political consensus is an urgent need to build more houses. Housebuilding and heritage can be reconciled, but at the moment far too few local authorities know how to do it.
A survey of both the contemporary and later responses to Dickens’s Christmas writings, considering the extent to which he can be seen as the creator of the modern Christmas.
Amongst all his astronomical allusions, Shakespeare demonstrates a deep knowledge of the night sky and its movements, including the new Copernican world-view. What can we learn of Elizabethan astronomy and Shakespeare's knowledge of it from the plays?
How can we find the best explanation of what we observe? Why do human beings enjoy pondering puzzles, such as the meaning of life? We can we learn much from Dorothy L. Sayers, whose detective novels and religious writings saw human beings as searching for 'patterns' in life.
Dickens' use of exaggeration is key to his style. But its use has myriad effects from making a character's disposition unmissable, to adding whimsy and humour.
The English Civil Wars of 1642-8 began as the last of Europe’s wars of religion and ended as the first modern revolution. This restless spirit manifested itself in various sects and fellowships, united by a loathing of complacency and hypocrisy, which both supported and undermined the republic.
Examples of disease as shown in artworks will be examined, from the medical and surgical point of view as well as the historical and artistic ones, particularly visual loss as portrayed by artists from pre-historic times.