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Hallowe'en parties are all the rage

Some revellers may pretend they are reviving ancient Celtic rites, but Hallowe'en's current format is essentially American

Sir Oswald Mosley and the BBC

For much of its history, the corporation actively blocked Britain’s most famous far-Right politician from television and radio

A devotion to relics, religious or otherwise

A quarter of a million people have paid their respects to the foot and thigh bones of St Thérèse of Lisieux

'Squandermania' in Whitehall

Nothing in the Labour manifesto of October 1974 indicated that the party aimed to cut government spending by 8 per cent

The murky history of arms deal backhanders

Now it would be hard to imagine double-dealing on the scale done by Sir Basil Zaharoff in the years before the First World War

Literary fumblings: The Princess and the President

In the 19th century the political roman à clef was a popular format for settling scores under the guise of fiction

High heels make a political statement

TUC's backing of the motion against high heels in the workplace suggests the fight for equality is levelling down rather than up

Politically controlled medicine

Barack Obama’s defence of his health care reforms may prove the most important speech of his presidency

Slugging it out on air

The BBC first tried to get Sir Alec Douglas-Home and his Labour rival, Harold Wilson, to spar before the cameras in 1964

The al-Megrahi affair

In contrast to the Lockerbie bomber case, US public and political opinion often interceded to get IRA terrorists released early

Stella the Fella

Caster Semenya's unhappy predicament is reminiscent of the nudges and winks that dogged successful women athletes in the 1930s

The theft of the royal treasury in 1303

If the purchasing power of money is taken into account, last week's £40 million diamond heist on Graff, the Mayfair jeweller, scooped far less...

Beer and the Spirit of Cricket

After the booing of Ricky Ponting at Edgbaston, England’s more partisan supporters have been told to sober up and calm down

Truth by media

The prospect of being grilled live on television is exactly the sort of media event that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown hoped to avoid

Domestic narcotic farming

If some farmers of the late 1700s had their way, England’s green and pleasant land would have been sown with fields of opium

Has Potter been rehabilitated by the Vatican?

Of all the doubtful modern influences on the young, it was always surprising that Harry Potter got singled out for censure

The call for a "spiritual renewal"

A new grouping of conservative clergy will oppose liberals on issues including the ordination of women bishops and the blessing of gay partnerships