Before the Spanish conquest, the history of the Aztec Empire was recorded orally and with hieroglyphs. In danger of being lost or forgotten, Indigenous historians began to write it down.
In 1938 a sensational spy trial exposed a Nazi plot to seduce and blackmail US officers. Despite America’s technological might, counterintelligence had been slow on the uptake.
Willem de Kooning’s works on paper document his efforts to find ways of retaining both image and abstraction, depth and flatness.
Willem de Kooning Drawing an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, June 14–September 20, 2026, and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, October 9, 2026–January 17, 2027
Charles Lamb’s camp, mischievous, melancholic alter ego, Elia, owes much to his sister, Mary, with whom he lived for forty years, absorbing her “rambling chat.”
Complete Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Volume IV: Elia and The Last Essays of Elia edited by Gregory Dart
John Goodall finds a moving monument to Katherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII, at Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire
Are you local?
How many generations does it take for a dynasty to be bona fide rather than blow-in? Mary Skipwith visits five Cotswolds estates in search of the answer
Property market
Renovated Cotswold manor houses with light-filled interiors and contemporary layouts catch the eye of Penny Churchill
Properties of the week
Julie Harding scours all corners of the Cotswolds as she show-cases a selection of the latest honey-hued homes for sale
Paint your garden
Tiffany Daneff is charmed by the colourful, considered palette of an artist’s garden at Ham Court in Gloucestershire
Jeremy Finnis’s favourite painting
The GWCT chairman chooses a purple-tinged landscape that evokes the spirit of the Highlands
A golden fleece
An array of parish churches are an enduring legacy of the wealth generated by Cotswolds sheep farming, reveals John Goodall
The legacy
Julie Harding travels back in time with the poetic prose of Laurie Lee’s classic Cider with Rosie
The artist’s way
The redstart’s striking looks and talent for mimicry make it a favourite for Mark Cocker
Don’t follow the lights
John Lewis-Stempel tries to avoid that sinking feeling as he ponders the precarious future of Britain’s precious peat bogs
Luxury
Justine Picardie celebrates the enduring appeal of the Burberry trench and Amie Elizabeth White rests easy with sleep essentials
Interiors
Amelia Thorpe reveals how to cook up an elegant kitchen look
Countryside mystery
John Wright debunks the myth surrounding the water-retention miracle of manmade dew ponds
Travel
A revived Ottoman masterpiece is the perfect retreat on Teresa Levonian Cole’s Greek odyssey
In a league of their own
Claire Jackson peers into curious British collections dedicated to everything from dog collars to canals and cuddly toys to clocks
Strike a posy
The Victorians were the original experts at saying it with flowers. Ashleigh Arnott reads the signs
It’s a stitch up!
Julie Harding traces the tale of the needle, a darn good creation made with pin-point precision
Arts & antiques
Feats of clay will always catch the eye of Will Gompertz, as he explains to Carla Passino
The play’s the thing
Turgenev and Sir Alan Ayckbourn supply the on-stage standouts for Michael Billington this month
As AI erodes our attention spans and expressiveness, philosophers like Simone Weil and Arthur Schopenhauer offer profound insights on what it means to be an individual.
In The Diversity of Morals, Steven Lukes attempts to reconcile philosophical arguments that there is one morality despite cultural differences with empirical studies that suggest it’s all relative.
The ancient capital has plenty of artwork and fossils, if that’s what you like. Or tour the writing rooms of a Nobel winner, the fortified home of an exiled Russian revolutionary and towers of skulls
Before they become sandy souvenirs, the baubles in the bubbles of the shoreline serve as a veritable fortress for creatures like clams, mussels and conchs
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/6b/85/6b85bf6c-e32d-47a5-ae26-56f2a6676e43/september-october-2026.webp)
Intellicurious 