For the last decade, discussions of Islam in the UK, the US, and much of continental Europe have revolved around a narrative of opposition: the Muslim World versus the West, sharia law versus democracy, Islamic civilisation versus Judeo-Christian. What nearly always goes unacknowledged are the shared histories, shared identities, and...

On February 7 1812, the young wife of a Navy pay office clerk gave birth to the second of her eight children in the small British town of Portsmouth. Her son, a "very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of-boy", would have a childhood interrupted by poverty and a stint working in a blacking...

"Poetry is what gets lost in translation," said the American poet Robert Frost. But it's not just poetry that fails to translate, as the British Council's current Writer-in-Residence Zoё Strachan has been finding out.

Zoё follows in the illustrious footsteps of...

Ten years ago, the September 11 attacks were a seismic moment in history. The tragedy was most keenly felt in the United States, but its impact resounded worldwide. For many young people who came of age around 2001, the events of that day shaped their view of the world.
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