BBC History Magazine August 2018

It’s that time of year when millions of people around Britain are set to embark on their summer holidays. And whether it’s a week in Margate or a fortnight in the Maldives, a large proportion of modern holidaymakers will be enjoying their time by the sea without having to worry about lost earnings. But that hasn’t always been the case. As Kathryn Ferry reveals in her article this month, it was only in 1938 that the idea of holidays with pay was enshrined into law, kicking off a leisure revolution. Head to page 62 to discover how this battle for the beaches was won.
Twenty years earl ier, a very di fferent kind of battle was being fought in France. The clash at Amiens in August 1918 was a brief but decisive victory for the Allies that heralded the beginning of the end for the German army. It was a high point of the war for Britain but one that barely registers today, while the Somme and Passchendaele dominate our thinking, On page 42, Nick Lloyd explains how Amiens was won, and considers why we prefer tales of tragedy over triumph. Our cover feature this month is ostensibly another tale of war, but Jonathan Healey’s piece actually has a much broader focus, taking in social, cultural and religious history to try to understand how king and parliament fell into conflict in the 1640s.