The Friday Digest 12/12/14

This week's update features the firms who cashed in on the First World War, 'Bethlehem syndrome' and the ten best English railway stations.

* How firms cashed in on the First World War. 

* Football in the First World War.

* The Windsor and Maidenhead pupils who have commemorated the First World War Christmas truce with a football match.

* How to bake a First World War trench cake.

* Stunning images by Christina Broom, Britain's first female press photographer, show suffragettes, the Grenadier Guards and King Edward. 

* Is the loan of a Parthenon sculpture to the Hermitage, 'a marble ambassador of a European ideal'?  

* Someone has made a map of every rude place name in the UK and there are some brilliant names included! 

* Ten great English railway stations.

* Clifton Suspension Bridge: Brunel's bridge marks 150 years since its completion. 

* The Industrial Revolution: why Britain got there first. 

* Elizabeth: Oliver Cromwell's 'queen'.

* Some of the most 'unique and historic' churches in Gloucestershire have been given an early Christmas present in the form of a share of a £60,000 grant.

* A previously unseen letter penned by Jane Austen is set to be sold by Torquay Museum.

* Alison Barnes sets the record straight on who was really responsible for introducing the first Christmas tree. 

* Toys are more divided by gender now than they were fifty years ago.  

* What happened to the 'unscathed' fathers of Ireland’s banished children? 

* Bringing a Ming painting back to life.

* Should historians have to adhere to 'a rigorous code of professional practice'?

* A rare book, written in German about Jersey, that was presented to a Red Cross nurse in 1945 has been returned to the island.

* The Albert Einstein archive has revealed the genius, doubts and loves of the scientist. 

* What did dictators like to eat?

* The Xmas factor: what makes a good Santa Claus?

* Bethlehem syndrome: understanding the little town of 'Brand Holy Land'. 

* The Latin language is making a comeback thanks to Pink Floyd and Pope Francis.  

* The American inspiration behind Tolkien’s death of Smaug is revealed.

* Declare your genius and complete Oscar Wilde’s epigrams here. 

* What does the Guardian bookshop's 2014 bestsellers list tell us about our readers? 

* J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike detective novels will be turned into a television series for BBC One. 

* What the publishing industry learned in 2014. 

* Massive cutbacks have been proposed at Library of Birmingham under new money-saving plans proposed by Birmingham City Council.

* Bezos admits making 'billion of dollars of failures' at Amazon. 

* How publishers can regain leverage with Amazon ...

* Hachette  has joined with Gumroad to sell books directly from Twitter. 

  Which history and publishing stories have you enjoyed reading this week?