The decade 1963-1973 is sometimes referred to as the 'golden age' of black hole research. Mathematical theorems proved in this period led to a complete classical description of equilibrium black holes in four space-time dimensions. More recently, string theory has forced us to take seriously the possibility of extra spatial dimensions. Thinking about black holes in more than four dimensions has led to spectacular advances in our understanding of quantum gravity. In the last five years, we have learned that higher-dimensional black holes exhibit much richer behaviour than four-dimensional ones, even classically. I shall review the discoveries of this new 'silver age' of black hole research. The talk should be accessible to MSc students.