High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall

A no-nonsense ex-Garda female cop, Scandi-noir’s newest flawed hero, the lure of Aussie gold, and unexpected decency in Silicon valley

MAT COWARD recalls the occasion when the first man in space paid a visit to our shores in 1961

It’s a dead easy crop to grow and can be made into one of Britain’s best sauces. MAT COWARD explains how

MAT COWARD looks at the personal ideology of a man as concerned with the psychology of inventing as with inventing itself, whose ideas about education – and contributions to the war effort against the Nazis – live on

MAT COWARD battles wayward pigeons in pursuit of a crop of purple sprouting broccoli

Despite his wealthy background and membership of a secretive aristocratic occult club, the radical politician forged an alliance with the working class to fight for democracy and free speech against the Georgian elite, writes MAT COWARD

MAT COWARD offers a roll call of refuseniks – some for political reasons, others for quirky reasons of their own

Charles Dickens was facing a return to the destitution that had blighted his childhood, and it was this which drove him to write the remarkable best-seller which changed the politics of Christmas forever, writes MAT COWARD

From swimming pool soviets to piano factory occupations, early 20th-century radical organiser Lillian Thring chose street battles and mass action over the electoral path, writes MAT COWARD

MAT COWARD offers invaluable advice on which type to grow according to flavour preferences, size of you pocket, timing and plant reliability

A crucial part of the war effort, the Home Guard, was launched partly due to the influence of Tom Wintringham, a revolutionary communist with a passion for DIY grenades and guerilla warfare, writes MAT COWARD

MAT COWARD explores how the ‘Tory-Radical’ Christian minister became a fiery opponent of the Poor Law, advocating armed resistance against its brutal cruelty against the emerging working class

Daring Scottish gothic, a murderer in their midst, the best spy story of the year and a classic list of clues

Taking up social work after being widowed transformed a Victorian liberal into a lifelong fighter for causes as wide-ranging as Sinn Fein and Indian independence to the right of women to drink in pubs, writes MAT COWARD

MAT COWARD declares this plant to be one that ‘everyone should grow’

From aristocratic upbringing to undercover communist courier and finally respected labour historian, MAT COWARD chronicles how personal tragedy and socialist conviction shaped an extraordinary activist’s journey

From the conundrums of a parallel London to a rewilding project in rural Ireland via a disturbing post-plagues world mystery thrives

MAT COWARD takes us back 230 years to the inglorious era of George III and a treasonous plan by the London Corresponding Society, in which all was not as it seemed…

MAT COWARD traces how ill health and voracious reading transformed a military man into the Father of Reform, championing American independence, universal suffrage and secret ballots against Establishment resistance

MAT COWARD unearths Gustav Holst’s radical roots, from meetings at William Morris’s house to pamphlet-printing and agitation with the Red Vicar of Thaxted — and laments that he is remembered today for the entirely wrong reason

Despite being tasty and nutritious, this root veg did not fit into the capitalist mould, so never won the popularity of the more durable potato, writes MAT COWARD

MAT COWARD tells the story of how rising food prices in 1800 sparked six days of protests at the Corn Exchange, as Londoners demanded affordable food and challenged mind-bogglingly stupid government policies about bread

MAT COWARD resurrects the radical spirit of early Labour’s overlooked matriarch, whose tireless activism and financial support laid the foundations for the party’s early success