First published in 1881 by Henry White at the price of 7 pennies, the Sunday Times was originally known as both the New Observer and the Independent Observer until 1882, when a change of owner updated the title to what it has remained ever since.

From the start, the paper consisted of a myriad of content, like birth and death notices, theatrical and literary criticism, news on crimes, and opinion pieces. Today, with a circulation of nearly one million, it’s currently the best-selling Sunday broadsheet in the country, with a centre-conservative political leaning.

In 1887, the paper was bought by mining industrialist Alice Ann Cornwell, who had returned to London after amassing a fortune in Australia to create the mouthful of a company the ‘British and Australian Mining Trust and Investment Company’. She bought the Sunday Times to promote the company, before selling in on in 1893 to Frederick Beer, owner of the Observer. Rachel Sassoon Beer, his wife, was appointed as editor. She was already the first woman to edit a national newspaper at the Observer.

Notably, James Bond author Ian Fleming worked for the Sunday Times as a full-time foreign editor between 1945 and 1959 and continued contributing articles for a few years after. It was during his time at the paper that he conceived the idea for the character we all know today, and wrote and published the first Bond novel of the series, ‘Casino Royale’.