STEVE JOHNSON recommends a beautiful album of songs that celebrate summer, from May Day onwards
ON AUGUST 2, 1347 an 11-month-long siege of Calais by the English ended.
Edward III had laid siege to the town and Philip VI of France ordered the port’s garrison to hold out at all costs. Philip failed to lift the siege and starvation eventually forced the citizens to parley for surrender.
For the French, the Calais episode was one of humiliating defeat: but for the English it marked the beginning of a victorious end to the 100 Years War.
A remarkable excavation in the Netherlands has raised hopes of locating the grave of Louis XIV’s famed captain of the King’s Musketeers. JOHN CALLOW introduces the real figure behind the hero of Dumas’s novels
JAN WOOLF ponders the works and contested reputation of the West German sculptor and provocateur, who believed that everybody is potentially an artist
PETER MASON is gripped by a novel that confronts corporate callousness with those prepared to act to bring about change
LYNNE WALSH tells the story of the extraordinary race against time to ensure London’s memorial to the International Brigades got built – as activists gather next week to celebrate the monument’s 40th anniversary


