Vis à vis Vic: the man whose work inspired Les Mis

‘I’m looking for books that capture a nation’s spirit and reveal something of its soul’

‘I’m not popular in Japan, so I’m surprised to be in a bookshop in London’

Twain spotting: ’The Lincoln of our literature’ in London

‘It takes a particular skill to be in the middle of a riot and take a good picture’

Still lives: the rapid rise of female statues in London

Pomp it up: How ‘Britannia’s butler’ epitomised English aristocratic grandeur at the height of the Empire

Gone fission: the scientists with their heads in the (mushroom) clouds

‘If you had a gun you were seen as more left-wing’

Review: Looking After – A Portrait of My Autistic Brother

One man’s beetlemania

Tufnell Park life: author shines a light on neighbourhood’s growth

‘Old Odell’: out-of-work actor who kicked King George V out of his favourite chair

‘I just love walking around and thinking of all the people here’

Drax of Drax Hall story casts light on role of slavery in British history

Moving pictures: how travel has influenced artists

‘I would finish a scene, only to witness it play out in real life a short while later’

Novel performance as Camden is the stage for star-crossed lovers

The rebel priest who stood bail for Oscar Wilde

Compleat makeover: hooked by seminal book full of ‘strangeness’, folklore… and fish