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…

Nature

How Large Are the Largest Insects on Earth?

Health

Your Body on Low Battery: The Real Cost of Vitamin Deficiency

Start Here

New to Interessia? These stories explain what we do.

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

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

History

Bicycles and women’s rights: Two Wheels and Scandalous Ankles

In the 1890s, Western civilisation found itself facing a terrifying new threat. Respectable women were climbing onto bicycles. They were leaving home without horses,…

6 min read

Nature

Armadillos: Armour as a Lifestyle Choice

Armadillos wander through the natural world like quirky little mistakes that nature fully intended. They look part medieval armoury, part garden pest, part misunderstood…

9 min read

Britain

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

Britain

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

Run, Minister, Run: Inside Westminster’s Division Bell Ritual

Imagine that you are an MP. You have spent the afternoon discussing tax policy, planning regulations or some amendment whose title requires more stamina…

5 min read

Eton College: Where Britain Learns to Rule

On 8 September 2026, a thirteen-year-old boy walked through the gates of a boarding school in Berkshire. Normally this would interest his parents, perhaps…

6 min read

The Order of St Patrick: The Knighthood Ireland Left Behind

There are institutions that disappear with a bang, and there are institutions that simply stop receiving invitations. The Order of St Patrick belongs firmly…

7 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

Bicycles and women’s rights: Two Wheels and Scandalous Ankles

In the 1890s, Western civilisation found itself facing a terrifying new threat. Respectable women were climbing onto bicycles. They were leaving home without horses,…

6 min read

Culture

How Broadway Became Broadway

Broadway is a street, a neighbourhood, an industry, a dream factory and, occasionally, an extremely efficient machine for turning several million dollars into absolutely…

7 min read

Britain

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

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.

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

People

Michael Faraday: From Binding Books to Rewriting Physics

Michael Faraday never went to university, struggled with advanced mathematics and began adult life binding other people’s books. By the end of his career,…

6 min read

People

Marco Polo: The Traveller Who Saw Too Much to Be Believed

Marco Polo had a credibility problem that feels surprisingly modern. He returned to Venice with stories so extravagant that sensible people struggled to take…

7 min read

Places

The stories behind the world’s most interesting places.

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

Places

Mallorca: More Than Just a Pretty Beach

Everyone has a mate who’s been to Mallorca. They come back with a tan, a bottle of Hierbas, and the same story: “Oh, it’s…

5 min read

From the Interessia Archive

Timeless stories, still worth reading.

Food

No Corn, All Character: The Surprisingly Global Life of Corned Beef

Corned beef is one of those culinary relics that sounds like it should involve sweetcorn but absolutely doesn’t. No kernels, no maize, not even…

6 min read

History

Roman Funerary Lions and Why the Dead Needed Guardians

Roman funerary lions have a habit of staring straight through you. They sit stiff-backed on tombs, crouch beside inscriptions, or loom above burial chambers…

7 min read

History

The Inventor of the Guillotine Regretted Everything

Joseph-Ignace Guillotin really thought he was doing everyone a favour. Picture it: a French doctor, wig slightly askew, passionately proposing a machine that would,…

4 min read

History

Doggerland: The Atlantis of the North Sea?

Stand on the east coast of England on a windy day and stare out across the North Sea. It looks permanent, moody and slightly…

6 min read

Britain

How Britain Lost 11 Days Overnight

Britain did not wake up one morning feeling slightly less alive, yet in September 1752 something quietly unsettling happened. The country went to bed…

6 min read

History

The Long Road to Mechanical Washing

Washday ranked among the loudest, wettest, and most exhausting household rituals. It soaked kitchens, filled yards with steam, and left backs aching for days.…

5 min read

Health

Is Your Microbiome Secretly Managing Your Working Day?

You may believe that your working day begins when you open your laptop. In reality, several trillion microscopic colleagues have already started their shift.…

6 min read

Food

Forget Supplements — Grab a Handful of Walnuts Instead

Some foods pretend to be healthy. They arrive in shiny wrappers, shout about antioxidants, and somehow still taste like glue and guilt. Walnuts, thankfully,…

7 min read