When do you use the past historic?

The past historic, (usually called the passé simple in French), is a past tense used in written narrative. It conveys past, completed actions that are slightly "detached" from the present and so is ultimately used to tell a story. It is therefore solely a written tense, used in classical styles of narrative such as novels: it is never used in everyday speech. You will not need to use it in you’re A Levels, but will need to be able to recognise it.