The ongoing stalemate over Catalonia has triggered many assertions, chief among them that Spain has abused its power against the Catalan people many times in the past – and that the region’s economic progress has long been hampered by Madrid. But this second allegation, championed by many nationalists, is simply not true, claims Lino Camprubi. Historically, he says Catalonia was far from economically downtrodden – and even benefitted more than most from the slave trade and protectionism during the Francoist period.

Few episodes capture the imagination quite like the Russian Revolution of 1917. To commemorate the centenary of this seminal moment in world history, we have dedicated our latest episode of The Anthill podcast to it. Listen and find out why there were two revolutions in 1917, what they sounded and smelled like, and how they reverberated across Europe. And here’s historian James Ryan’s take on why the Bolshevik seizure of power remains relevant today.

Emily Brontё’s Heathcliff is one of the most famous characters in romantic fiction. But when Andrea Arnold cast him as black in her 2011 film of Wuthering Heights, it prompted a fierce debate about his ethnicity. Corinne Fowler, though, says if you consider the prominence of the slave trade in 19th-century Yorkshire, it’s hardly surprising that Brontё’s famed outsider might have had African roots.

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