History cannot tell us about everything that has ever happened and what it can tell us is but a tiny fraction of everything that has ever happened.

Andrew Vinken examines the history we do know about, but which has been largely forgotten. Kings and queens and famous places do make occasional appearances, but they do so in secondary roles. The stories that are included in this volume are about people and places that, for the most part, do not spring readily to mind, but which, partly because of their obscurity, form fascinating tales nonetheless.

In volume two of The Forgotten Past, Andrew Vinken continues to explore the history that did not make it into the school curriculum, predominantly focussing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.