Telegraph magazine - The Point Of No Return cover (2 August 2014)

New unread condition

1914: Britain on the eve of war (World War 1)

END OF INNOCENCE - The image of pre-war Britain that has formed in the popular imagination is one of carefree prosperity, a halcyon era brought to a brutal end by events in Europe. But with social unrest, strikes, suffragettes and a gathering storm in Ireland, matters were far from quiet on the home front
3 pages

THE BEST OF ENEMIES - Contrary to what one might imagine, in the months leading up to war, relations between Britain and Germany were surprisingly cordial
3 pages

DISUNITED KINGDOM - In 1914, when Parliament passed the Home Rule Act in the face of Tory opposition, Ulster Unionists organised armed revolt, and civil war threatened
3 pages

A TIGHT SHIP - As the prospect of war loomed, Winston Churchill had the task of preparing the already impressive Royal Navy for what lay ahead. In doing so he faced a political struggle on his own shores
3 pages

FAST TRACK TO THE FUTURE - Great advances in engineering and design meant that in the years before the war motor-cars and aeroplanes were becoming faster and, as a result, more popular, particularly with dashing young men looking for excitement
2 pages

BREAKING POINT - As financial markets reacted to the turmoil in Europe with panic, in London people formed orderly queues, waiting to turn their banknotes into gold. It was the beginning of the end of the City's status as the financial centre of the world
2 pages

THE MILITANT GENTLEWOMEN - The suffragettes were an increasingly violent group, which put them at odds with the establishment and the general public until the outbreak of war
3 pages

CLOSE OF PLAY - If the early years of the 20th century represented cricket's golden age, it was an innings cut short by conflict, and many of England's finest with bat and ball would never again make their way out to the middle
1½ pages

THE WORKERS UNITE - Despite the reforms brought in by the Liberal government, the years before the war were punctuated by a series of strikes and civil unrest
3 pages

BRUSHES WITH THE AVANT-GARDE - As new artistic movements from the Continent took London by storm, and homegrown militants shocked, a progressive campaign for the democratisation of the arts was gently taking hold
2 pages

THE WAY WE WORE - High fashion's bold shapes, strong colours and Eastern flourishes were tempered by the arrival of practical 'ready-mades' in the West End, and a stern warning against the wholesale adoption of Parisian chic
2 pages

OLD SOLDIERS NEVER DIE - The Telegraph obituaries of those who fought and survived tell the story of the war from a very personal angle, whether it is the ornithologist spotting birds in the middle of a battle or the captain who rose from the dead only to be captured by the Germans
4½ pages

KATRINA KIRKWOOD - On her grandmother Isabella Stenhouse, a pioneering doctor
1 page