Daisy Dunn

Blue monkeys, bull-leaping and child sacrifice: why were the Minoans so weird?

These ancient Cretans might be some of the most mystifying people we've ever stumbled upon in modern times

Minoan gold ring showing a man leaping over a bull, 1450–1375 BC. Credit: © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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Gareth Roberts

World war twee: the hideous triviality of our times

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I remember the moment I first understood that we, the British, had a national character. It was in the mid-1970s and my family and I were watching a clip from an American TV show which was being shown to us by ITV for a giggle. It was a celebration of the love between mothers and

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