Two hundred years after her death, Jane Austen still fascinates. Mary Leland surveys a new biography of the famous writer that reveals the financial struggles of the Austen family at the edges of Georgian gentility

Kya deLongchamps traces the history of wallpaper from the early stone-chilled castles of the medieval period, to the rococo mansions of the restoration and beyond.

The eight tons of gold, silver and copper unearthed from mines in Mongolia and Utah and now under guard at the Tower of London is the largest ever haul used to make Olympic medals.