By Will Barber Taylor It is inevitable that any political leader will, if they last long enough, face a test that will define their time in office for posterity. For some, that test is economic — how they deal with the threat of poverty to their people. For others that…

By Will Barber Taylor This piece is a selection of profiles I wrote some time ago for a project that never came to pass on the slave owners who lived and were associated with the town of Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. …

By Will Barber Taylor Today marks sixty years since leaders of two of the greatest superpowers of their day sat down to discuss the future of the world. They were polls apart — one with a vibrant, youthful and energetic politician recently elected President of his country by a thin…

By Will Barber Taylor The Labour Party has not won a General Election since 2005. It is 15 years since Labour won a general election and ten years since it has been in office. These are the stark realities that face the Labour Party currently. It is unfortunate that these…

By Will Barber Taylor The judgement of a politician’s influence, whether in their lifetime or after it, is complicated. Anyone who knows anything about politics will know that people in power get derided, abused and mocked. Satirising and complaining about politicians is as old as politics itself — you only…

By Will Barber Taylor Detectives, particularly those that are most recognisable to us, are not often from working class backgrounds. Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, Albert Campion, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, the list is nearly endless of classic detectives. Yet, the majority of the most recognisable detectives…

By Will Barber Taylor Tristram Shandy was, in his day, one of the most popular and successful characters in fiction. Publishing thousands of copies, the adventures of the errant man of the world are as funny now as they were when first written 200 years ago. …

By Will Barber Taylor In August 1469, the servants of Middleham Castle saw an extraordinary sight. Edward the Fourth, King of England was taken into the castle under the armed guard of the castle’s owner. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick was one of the most powerful men in England and…

By Will Barber Taylor The death of John Bruce Glasier on the Fourth of June 1920 occurred nearly a hundred years ago. Glasier was one of the Labour Party’s most important early members and yet his contribution to the party and the history of socialism is often ignored, partly because…