The New European: A Year in Music

Weekly feature running from July 2017 – July 2019 in the award-winning The New European, the voice of the 48%

The New European: Franco’s Eurovision

Fifty years ago saw the most controversial Eurovision Song Contest in history. Sophia Deboick looks back to an event that began with intrigue and ended in farce

Journal of Religious History: “A Father and Mother More Worthy of Heaven Than of Earth”: The Promotion of the Cults of Louis and Zélie Martin by the Carmel of Lisieux, 1897–1959

This article examines the promotion of the cults of the parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux by their daughters, nuns of the Carmel of Lisieux, from the time of Thérèse’s death in 1897 until the late 1950s. Louis and Zélie Martin were made saints in the first joint canonisation of spouses in the history of […]

The New European: Staging post on road to stardom

For a few years at the height of the Sixties, the epicentre of cool was to be found between junctions 16 and 17 of the M1. Sophia Deboick reports on an unsung cultural landmark.

The New European: Pioneer poseurs – how Roxy Music’s art school experiment changed rock

With a re-release of their milestone debut album, and the anniversary of their seminal follow-up, Sophia Deboick considers what made Roxy Music so special

History Today: In Defiance of Her Golden Age

Lucie Delarue-Mardrus was at the heart of daring interwar Paris, where she used her influence to defend those left behind by ‘progress’

The New European: Sex, drugs and troubadours – how rock first rolled in the Middle Ages

Risqué, rebellious and always ready to stick it to the man, the songsmiths of the Middle Ages deserve recognition as the true originators of rock and roll. Sophia Deboick makes the case

The New European: Au revoir France’s everyman

Johnny Hallyday’s skill was his ability to be all things to all people, says Sophia Deboick. It was this that allowed him to become the embodiment of a nation

The New European: When Alice Cooper met Salvador Dali – the surreal marriage of American rock and European art

Sophia Deboick on a bizarre chapter in rock history to which countless other acts, from David Bowie onwards, owe a debt of gratitude

History Today: History Matters – The Friendly Recluse

Medieval hermits were the agony aunts of their day