The popular image of journalistic life in days gone by may well be of the heaving newsroom, populated by harassed men with press passes stuck in the bands of their trilbies, but what of the life of the roving freelancer, scribing under his own steam?

Orphaned Reg Shay began working life in Fleet Street during the second world war as a messenger before moving up to the news desk and later becoming a South London court reporter. He subsequently moved to Rhodesia for family health reasons where he became a respected and sought-after international war and political correspondent writing for,...

This is the seven-year campaign that saved Europe from Napoleon told by those who were there. What made Arthur Duke of Wellington the military genius who was never defeated in battle? Peter Snow recalls how Wellington evolved from a backward, sensitive schoolboy into the aloof but brilliant commander.

As heard on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. Shortlisted for the Paddy Power Political History Book of the Year Award 2014. In August 1814 the United States' army is defeated in battle by an invading force just outside Washington DC. The US president and his wife have just enough time to pack their belongings and escape from the White House before the enemy enters. The invaders tuck into the dinner they find still sitting on the dining-room table and then set fire to the place. 9/11 was not the first time the heartland of the United States was struck a devastating blow by outsiders. Two...

An examination of world history, told through 50 key documents.

Historians and broadcasters Peter Snow and Ann Macmillan tell the real stories of the most powerful men and women in British history.