Britain

Horse Manure and Fake News

In 1894, London supposedly received one of the most alarming predictions in its history. Within fifty years, every street in the capital would be…

Mind & Society

What Do We Really Want to Keep Secret?

Culture

How the Victoria and Albert Museum Invented the Museum Café

Start Here

New to Interessia? These stories explain what we do.

Mind & Society

Hyperindividualism: The Age of Me, Myself and I

In 2023, roughly one in four Americans ate every meal of the previous day alone. According to the World Happiness Report 2025, the proportion…

6 min read

Places

Solingen: Seven Centuries of Making Things Sharp

For centuries, the name Solingen has appeared on objects designed to do two rather different things: kill people and prepare their dinner. Medieval swords,…

6 min read

Britain

The House of Commons: Green Benches and Red Lines of British Democracy

The British House of Commons has 650 Members of Parliament, but its debating chamber has seats for only 427 of them. In a country…

6 min read

Business & Economy

Britain’s Most Expensive Business Problem Isn’t What You Think

Britain has apparently discovered a rather sophisticated way of discouraging business investment without actually banning anything. There is no need to introduce a new…

8 min read

Britain

The institutions, customs, places and peculiarities that made Britain what it is.

Britain

The House of Commons: Green Benches and Red Lines of British Democracy

The British House of Commons has 650 Members of Parliament, but its debating chamber has seats for only 427 of them. In a country…

6 min read

The Woolsack: Why Britain Put Its Lord Speaker on a Bag of Wool

Imagine walking into one of the most magnificent parliamentary chambers in the world. Gold glitters from the ceiling, Gothic carvings cover the walls, and…

7 min read

London Plane Trees: How the Spotted Foreigners Conquered the Capital

London has plenty of famous residents. Some occupy palaces, others appear on television, and a few have spent centuries standing on pavements without attracting…

7 min read

The Norman Conquest: When England Got New Management

There are historical dates, and then there is 1066. British schoolchildren once learnt it almost before learning their own birthdays: William the Conqueror, Harold…

6 min read

A Curious Story

Extraordinary people, places and ideas from a changing world.

You probably didn’t know

Montgolfier Balloon: The Day Humanity Finally Left the Ground

For most of human history, flying belonged to birds, gods and people with an unhealthy confidence in homemade wings. Then, during a few extraordinary…

History

Not dates and kings. The stories that explain how the modern world happened.

History

The British fingerprints on the Pampas

Stand on an old railway platform somewhere in the Argentine Pampas and you may experience a peculiar geographical confusion. The station has red brickwork,…

7 min read

History

Who Invented King Arthur?

Imagine trying to find the real King Arthur by walking backwards through time. At first, everything looks reassuringly familiar. There is Camelot, the Round…

8 min read

History

Suffragists, Suffragettes — Petitions and Broken Windows

The British campaign for women’s right to vote has acquired a wonderfully convenient cast of characters. On one side stand the suffragists, respectable women…

7 min read

Food

Why we eat what we eat.

Food

Pecan: The Nut That Grew Up With America

There are glamorous nuts and there are sensible nuts. Pistachios arrive dressed in green. Macadamias carry the aura of tropical luxury. Almonds somehow acquired…

5 min read

Food

Asado: Argentina’s Slowest, Loudest, Most Serious Meal

In Argentina, cooking meat has never been a side activity. It sits at the centre of the day. Everything else quietly rearranges itself around…

5 min read

Food

Rutabaga: The Vegetable That Survived Everything Except Fashion

Rutabaga may have one of the worst marketing departments in the vegetable world. It is large, heavy, slightly lumpy and usually dressed in an…

6 min read

Tech & Science

Things worth understanding, without needing a PhD.

History

Montgolfier Balloon: The Day Humanity Finally Left the Ground

For most of human history, flying belonged to birds, gods and people with an unhealthy confidence in homemade wings. Then, during a few extraordinary…

6 min read

Tech & Science

Forget the Battlefield: Rwanda Found a Better Use for Drones

These days, drones usually make the news for grim reasons. They appear in reports from war zones, in footage of surveillance, and in stories…

7 min read

Tech & Science

DNA Ethnicity Estimates: Can Your Saliva Really Tell You Where You Come From?

You spit into a small plastic tube, put it in the post and wait for science to inspect several hundred years of family history.…

6 min read

People

The people who changed how we see the world.

People

How Margaret Thatcher Turned a Handbag into a Political Weapon

In the history of British politics, powerful men have traditionally carried briefcases, red despatch boxes or occasionally nothing more intimidating than a rolled-up newspaper.…

7 min read

People

Jeffrey Archer: A Life Stranger Than His Fiction

Jeffrey Archer died on 5 October 2026, aged 86, at home, suddenly and peacefully. The news would have been sad but relatively straightforward had…

7 min read

Culture

Why John Coltrane Still Sounds Radical at 100

On 23 September 2026, John Coltrane would have turned 100. This feels slightly improbable, because Coltrane belongs to that peculiar category of artist who…

7 min read

Places

The stories behind the world’s most interesting places.

Places

Solingen: Seven Centuries of Making Things Sharp

For centuries, the name Solingen has appeared on objects designed to do two rather different things: kill people and prepare their dinner. Medieval swords,…

6 min read

Places

Toledo: The Capital of Swords

Walk through Toledo and sooner or later you will encounter a sword. Usually sooner. They hang in shop windows beside suits of armour, medieval…

7 min read

Places

Ceuta: The Spanish City in Africa

Ceuta looks like the sort of place created during a particularly competitive evening of mapmaking. It sits on the North African coast, shares a…

7 min read

History

Is the Great Wall of China Really What You Think It Is?

Picture the Great Wall of China and your mind probably creates a familiar image. You see one enormous stone ribbon winding across misty mountains.…

8 min read

From the Interessia Archive

Timeless stories, still worth reading.

Culture

Why Janis Joplin ’s Rock Feels So Uncomfortable

Janis Joplin never sounded safe. Even when the band played gently and the lyrics hinted at freedom or release, her voice carried risk. It…

5 min read

Health

The Winter Travel Immunity Problem Nobody Notices Until It’s Too Late

People blame winter bugs on bad luck. In reality, winter travel immunity rarely fails by chance. Airports, aircraft cabins, hotel corridors, and time zones…

5 min read

History

Why There’s a British Post Box in Antarctica

You haven’t really lived until you’ve queued behind a man in a parka and snow goggles, clutching a postcard with frostbitten fingers, waiting to…

6 min read

Culture

The Khmissa and the Quiet Art of Keeping Trouble Out

You notice the khmissa long before anyone explains it. It hangs quietly on a door in Fez, swings from a taxi mirror in Casablanca,…

5 min read

Food

From Blockades to Beignets: The Odd Journey of Chicory Coffee

Chicory coffee always arrives with a bit of attitude, as if it knows you’re expecting something ordinary and wants to prove you wrong. Anyone…

8 min read

Britain

Inside the Most Noble Order of the Garter

The Most Noble Order of the Garter: Britain’s Strangest Club of Velvet, Power and Excellent Hats There are many ways to tell the story…

6 min read

Nature

Loch Lomond: Scotland Moodiest Lake

Loch Lomond greets you like an old friend who somehow knows all your moods. One minute you get Highland drama with mist rolling over…

6 min read

History

Caravanserai: Camel Stops and Culture Swaps

Imagine arriving just before dusk, your clothes stiff with dust, your patience thinner than the leather straps holding your cargo together. The desert has…

8 min read