‘We were always trying to push boundaries’: Jim Howick on breaking taboos, coping with life and the joy of dogs

Jim Howick’s wicked sense of humour helped turn Horrible Histories, Ghosts and Sex Education into massive hits. Here, the actor and writer reveals how he’s always made it up as he went along

What are the lessons of history and why don’t we learn them?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

Sir Tony Wrigley obituary

Economic and demographic historian who transformed the view of the industrial revolution

Sir John Elliott obituary

Historian of imperial Spain known for his vivid biography of a 17th-century statesman, the count-duke of Olivares

Michael MacLeod obituary

Other lives: Art historian who championed the work of the British artist Thomas Hennell

The Guardian view on ordinary histories: often quite extraordinary

Editorial: Historic England’s proposal to celebrate the places where “ordinary people” have worked, lived or socialised is very welcome

‘A Francoist daydream’: how Spain’s right clings to its imperialist past

A Peruvian author fears her adopted home is far from an apology for its Latin American abuses

Betty Wood obituary

Other lives: Historian of slavery, gender and religion in America

Unsung hero: how ‘Mr Radio Philips’ helped thousands flee the Nazis

In June 1940, a Dutch salesman, acting as a consul in Lithuania, issued Jewish refugees with pseudo visas to escape Europe. His remarkable story is only now being told

Dick Leonard obituary

Journalist, historian and pro-European Labour MP who rebelled against his party’s whip to vote in favour of the Common Market

Derek Keene obituary

Historian who painted a vivid picture of life in medieval cities such as London and Winchester

Was the fiddler framed? How Nero may have been a good guy after all

He was a demonic emperor who stabbed citizens at random and let Rome burn. Or was he? We go behind the scenes at a new show exploding myths about the ancient world’s favourite baddie

Great thinkers make sense of a world racked by contradictions

The likes of Edward Said knew that the crucial issues of the day must be seen in shades of grey, not black and white

Andrew Porter obituary

Historian who re-introduced the subject of religion into his studies of the British empire

Frances Harris obituary

Historian who made her name with biographies of leading figures in Stuart Britain