A sportsman and an officer lays a wager that he can make a trigger-happy Irishman go barefoot in public.

Captain Cook’s friend and ship’s surgeon David Samwell gives us his impressions of the great explorer.

Abdullah Abdul Kadir gives us his first-hand impressions of the Founder of Singapore and of his first wife, Olivia.

The busy trading hub of Malacca was to be consigned to history, until Stamford Raffles saw that history was one of its assets.

Dr Johnson’s cat left James Boswell cold, but the great man himself would do anything to avoid hurting the little fellow’s feelings.

A doctor is wondering how to apologise for being drunk on the job, when he receives a letter from his patient.