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Tales of History and Imagination

144 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 7 hours ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratings

Eccentric tales from History by Simone Whitlow

History Society & Culture
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Episodes

A Dangerous Liaison

March 28, 2024 19:14 - 24 minutes - 25.4 MB

This week we travel to the Germanic Duchy of Hannover, the year 1694. Under cover of darkness, a dashing, aristocratic young soldier named Philip Christoph von Konigsmarck makes his way to an illicit meeting with his lover; the deeply unhappily married Princess Sophia Dorothea of Celle. Before the night is done one of the lovers will disappear mysteriously.             Sources Include:  Great Mysteries of The Past - Readers Digest. Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Love...

The Triptych

March 15, 2024 08:45 - 24 minutes - 26 MB

Trigger Warning: Death by misadventure, and an execution by guillotine. I make no concessions for calling Aotearoa… Aotearoa. I mention this as in Aotearoa (New Zealand) news sites are having to shut down comment sections on Maori language, Maori achievement and Maori culture over racist morons getting upset by this news. If the use of Te Reo names over those of colonizers upsets you, this show really isn’t for you… This week is a bit of a departure from my regular plan. I’m still working o...

The Secret Path

February 28, 2024 20:05 - 23 minutes - 24.1 MB

Trigger Warning: Talk of executions, religious extremism and cannibalism. This week we return one last time to the city of Münster. With everything going to hell in Münster, Henry Gresbeck risks his life in a dash for freedom. The Prince Bishop has given orders to kill all men who show up at the wall - but Gresbeck has a secret that may just unravel the siege. How does this play out? Who will survive, and just what is a Wagenburg anyway?           Sources Include: There are very few boo...

The Tailor King

February 14, 2024 17:01 - 29 minutes - 32.1 MB

This week we return to the city of Münster, in the Holy Roman Empire. Now we’ve got all the context out of the way - let’s discuss the war between the Prince Bishop, and the city’s new rogue Prophet - the Tailor, Jan of Leiden. This is Part Two of a Three Parter.        Sources Include:  There are very few book out there on this topic so I mostly worked from. The Tailor King by Anthony Arthur And Freaks of Fanaticism and Other Strange Events by Sabine Baring-Gould Support the show on Patre...

Jan Matthias Rides Out…

January 31, 2024 20:02 - 30 minutes - 33 MB

This week we travel to the city of Münster, in the Holy Roman Empire. The year, 1534. Tensions have ratcheted up between the City’s Prince Bishop, the City Council and a rogue preacher to the point where the people have gone rogue - having rebelled, locked the gates and set up the cannons for war. Over the following two episodes we’ll break down what happened during the siege of Münster.. This is part one of a two parter.        Sources Include:  There are very few books out there on this...

Charles Lightoller’s Worst Day Ever

January 15, 2024 19:36 - 8 minutes - 8.82 MB

Hi all, I’m technically still on holiday (Tales will be back for Season 5 on 1st February.) - but I was on the mic on Sunday, and had a little downtime … and a spare script or two. This week we meet Charles Lightoller, a remarkable sailor, on what I believe must have been his worst day ever?      Sources Include:  I wrote this to the blog in early 2020… so …. pass, sorry. But articles probably included.   This History Channel article - Author not listed.  This Encyclopaedia Titanica artic...

The Stone of Destiny

December 19, 2023 18:12 - 27 minutes - 32.4 MB

Happy Holidays all! This week we travel to Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1950. It’s four in the morning when a policeman comes across a young couple huddled together in their car. Like another young couple a few millennia before, they tell him they have come to town, only to find no room left at the inn. Little does the officer know, but he’d stumbled across a theft hundreds of years in the making.    Sources Include:  As I couldn’t find any books for this one, there were quite a few...

A Pope, a Hermit, a Cowboy and a Soldier

December 03, 2023 05:04 - 27 minutes - 28.2 MB

Hi all apologies for the delay. I’ve been unwell for a couple of weeks, and am only just bouncing back now. This week, on what was originally planned for Transgender Day of Remembrance (two weeks ago) we continue my annual Trans history episode. In 2022 I started this series replying to a foolish claim Trans people were a recent phenomenon. My take, there have always been people we’d now recognise as Trans.  My list of examples veered from groups, like the Galli, to individuals - like Elean...

Pope Joan

December 03, 2023 05:04 - 27 minutes - 28.2 MB

Hi all apologies for the delay. I’ve been unwell for a couple of weeks, and am only just bouncing back now. This week, on what was originally planned for Transgender Day of Remembrance (two weeks ago) we continue my annual Trans history episode. In 2022 I started this series replying to a foolish claim Trans people were a recent phenomenon. My take, there have always been people we’d now recognise as Trans.  My list of examples veered from groups, like the Galli, to individuals - like Elean...

When Prophesies Fail

November 07, 2023 05:26 - 28 minutes - 31.3 MB

This week we meet two prophets, separated by half a world, and three centuries. One is the self appointed son of God, the other talks with Aliens. What happens to prophets, and more importantly - their followers, when prophesies fail? (This episode is a re-do of 2021’s Dorothy Martin’s Flying Saucer.) Trigger Warning: I hadn’t scheduled this with the current situation in Palestine/Israel in mind, but the episode discusses a claimant for the role of Jewish Messiah. I don’t know if this need...

The Monstrous Life of Zana of Abkhazia

October 23, 2023 06:29 - 20 minutes - 21.7 MB

This week we travel to the Kingdom of Abkhazia, a Black Sea land nestled amongst the Caucasus. At a date lost to history, but believed to be around 1860 - hunters trap what they believe is a monster in their bear pit. The creature is shackled and brought to a nobleman named Edgi Genaba. This week is all about monsters - but the monster may not be who you are thinking of.  Trigger Warning: This Tale contains discussion of rape and dehumanisation.  Sources Include:  In The Footsteps of The ...

The Bagradas Dragon

October 09, 2023 09:11 - 13 minutes - 14.9 MB

This week we travel to the Bagradas River, Tunisia in 256 BC. Rome are in the midst of the Punic wars against Carthage, and are in the process of launching an all out invasion on the Carthaginians. As 14,000 Legionnaires, led by Marcus Attilus Regulus make their way towards the capital, they encounter a foe they were not expecting. Just what was the Bagradas Dragon? Apologies all, this week came out around ten minutes shorter than I planned in editing. I had no plans of dropping a minisode ...

Minisode: The Bagradas Dragon

October 09, 2023 09:11 - 13 minutes - 14.9 MB

This week we travel to the Bagradas River, Tunisia in 256 BC. Rome are in the midst of the Punic wars against Carthage, and are in the process of launching an all out invasion on the Carthaginians. As 14,000 Legionnaires, led by Marcus Attilus Regulus make their way towards the capital, they encounter a foe they were not expecting. Just what was the Bagradas Dragon? Apologies all, this week came out around ten minutes shorter than I planned in editing. I had no plans of dropping a minisode ...

Hereward the Wake: The Conqueror

September 25, 2023 04:05 - 33 minutes - 34 MB

This week we return to medieval England for part two of our two parter. We finally get to Hereward, but first let’s talk a little about William the Conqueror and the final years of Edward the Confessor’s reign.  Welcome to Hereward the Wake: Part Two - The Confessor.  Sources this week include:  I promise I’ll get this done in the coming days… A lot of info from these two episodes come from older blog posts I’ve taken down some time back, which I need to work back from… but the main newer...

Hereward the Wake: Two - The Conqueror

September 25, 2023 04:05 - 33 minutes - 34 MB

This week we return to medieval England for part two of our two parter. We finally get to Hereward, but first let’s talk a little about William the Conqueror and the final years of Edward the Confessor’s reign.  Welcome to Hereward the Wake: Part Two - The Confessor.  Sources this week include:  I promise I’ll get this done in the coming days… A lot of info from these two episodes come from older blog posts I’ve taken down some time back, which I need to work back from… but the main newer...

Hereward the Wake: One - The Confessor

September 10, 2023 09:07 - 24 minutes - 25.8 MB

This week we go back to medieval, Anglo Saxon England for a two parter. I’ve got a Tale to tell of an outlaw, a resourceful Wolf’s-head who leads a guerrilla war against a cruel, unjust King - a man some might say robbed from the rich to give to…. Well, we’ll get to that - but before we do we have a Confessor, a Bastard… and a slew of other characters to deal with first.  Welcome to Hereward the Wake - Part one: where today we’ll delve into the Wessexes.  Sources this week include:  I pro...

Hereward the Wake: The Confessor

September 10, 2023 09:07 - 24 minutes - 25.8 MB

This week we go back to medieval, Anglo Saxon England for a two parter. I’ve got a Tale to tell of an outlaw, a resourceful Wolf’s-head who leads a guerrilla war against a cruel, unjust King - a man some might say robbed from the rich to give to…. Well, we’ll get to that - but before we do we have a Confessor, a Bastard… and a slew of other characters to deal with first.  Welcome to Hereward the Wake - Part one: where today we’ll delve into the Wessexes.  Sources this week include:  I pro...

What Happened to Richard Cox?

August 26, 2023 08:25 - 23 minutes - 23.2 MB

This week Tales goes true crime - as we travel West Point Military Academy, January 1950. Cadet Richard Colvin Cox receives a mysterious visitor identified only as ‘George.’ A week later, Richard would disappear without a trace.   The investigation would uncover several intriguing scenarios, but ultimately are we any closer to knowing what happened to Richard Cox?   Sources this week include:  I started off with Harry J. Maihoffer’s ‘Oblivion, The Mystery of West Point Cadet Richard Cox’ ...

The Poe Toaster

August 11, 2023 09:54 - 17 minutes - 17.8 MB

This week, we travel to Baltimore’s Gunner’s Hall - the date October 3rd 1849. A disheveled man is found outside the bar “…in great distress and… in need of immediate assistance.” It turns out the man is none other than the horror and detective fiction pioneer Edgar Allan Poe.  Today we discuss Mr Poe’s passing, and the case of the mysterious ‘Poe Toaster.’   Sources this week include:  I wrote this as a blog post to commemorate 50 posts on the blog, way back in 2020 - apologies, I never ...

The Mysterious Mister ZedZed

July 28, 2023 09:29 - 32 minutes - 33.2 MB

This week on Tales we return to Infernal Machines and a shadowy merchant of death who sold them - a man who built a great fortune on the death and suffering of millions. What can we actually say on the life of the mysterious Sir Basil Zaharoff?   Sources this week include:  Man of Arms; The Life and Legend of Sir Basil Zaharoff by Anthony Allfrey This Time Magazine Article This Library of Congress article on J.P. Holland This Cecil Bloom article in Liberal History And Mike Dash’s The Myste...

Animals

July 12, 2023 08:31 - 25 minutes - 25.6 MB

This week on Tales of History and Imagination, we travel from The White House to Coney Island’s Luna Park, from the jungles of Cameroon, to the Bosphorus Strait in the age of Justinian… to the battlefields of World War One - to tell five short tales of animals who also inhabit this world.  Sources this week include:  The Periplus of Hanno the Navigator Fortean Times World’s Weirdest News Stories. Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Book 7 of Procopius’ The History of ...

Minisode: The Namamugi Incident

June 25, 2023 22:40 - 11 minutes - 13 MB

In June Tales of History and Imagination is on holiday… Well, technically I’m writing new scripts for the second half of the year. In the meantime I’ve recorded a couple of minisodes, the second on Charles Lennox Richardson and The Namamugi Incident. Sources? Honestly, I never noted them when I wrote this in 2019, sorry.   Support the show on Patreon for just $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content. Not sure if you want to invest? Try our 7 Day Free Trial.  Please leave Tales a ...

The Namamugi Incident

June 25, 2023 22:40 - 11 minutes - 13 MB

In June Tales of History and Imagination is on holiday… Well, technically I’m writing new scripts for the second half of the year. In the meantime I’ve recorded a couple of minisodes, the second on Charles Lennox Richardson and The Namamugi Incident. Sources? Honestly, I never noted them when I wrote this in 2019, sorry.   Support the show on Patreon for just $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content. Not sure if you want to invest? Try our 7 Day Free Trial.  Please leave Tales a ...

Minisode: Frau Troffea’s Dance With The Devil

June 11, 2023 21:49 - 7 minutes - 8.37 MB

In June Tales of History and Imagination is on holiday… Well, technically I’m writing new scripts for the second half of the year. In the meantime I’ve recorded a couple of minisodes, starting with the Tale of Frau Troffea and Medieval Dancing Plagues.    Support the show on Patreon for just $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content. Not sure if you want to invest? Try our 7 Day Free Trial.  Please leave Tales a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support...

Frau Troffea’s Dance With The Devil

June 11, 2023 21:49 - 7 minutes - 8.37 MB

In June Tales of History and Imagination is on holiday… Well, technically I’m writing new scripts for the second half of the year. In the meantime I’ve recorded a couple of minisodes, starting with the Tale of Frau Troffea and Medieval Dancing Plagues.    Support the show on Patreon for just $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content. Not sure if you want to invest? Try our 7 Day Free Trial.  Please leave Tales a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support...

The Murder of William Desmond Taylor

May 29, 2023 06:51 - 26 minutes - 27.5 MB

This week, Part Three of our Hollywood Trilogy -  we discuss the Feb 1st 1922 murder of pioneering film director William Desmond Taylor, and the Pandora’s Box flung open in his wake.    Sources this week include: (Sorry all, I’ll fill in later this week) The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content. Not sure if you want to invest? Try our 7 Day Free Trial.  Please leave Tales a like and review wherever you li...

Shorts: What Ended Mabel Normand’s Career?

May 29, 2023 06:26 - 1 minute - 1.99 MB

Hey everyone the following is a quick addendum to the episode on William Desmond Taylor. Just what happened to Norma Desmond to finally ruin her career? I glossed over it in the episode so… here it is.  Support the show on Patreon for just $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content. Not sure if you want to invest? Try our 7 Day Free Trial.  Please leave Tales a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Crea...

The Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle Incident

May 16, 2023 21:35 - 24 minutes - 24.9 MB

This week, part two of our Hollywood Trilogy -  we discuss the Fatty Arbuckle/ Virginia Rappe case. How did a mysterious death during a boozy Labour Day party change the public’s perception of Hollywood forever? Hit play to find out…   Sources this week include: (Sorry all, I’ll fill in later this week) The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content.      Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The ...

Olive Thomas: The Poisoned Chalice

May 02, 2023 19:45 - 25 minutes - 26.6 MB

For the next three episodes Tales of History and Imagination is going Hollywood, with three related - but separate Tales. In 1919, many of the folks who brought America Prohibition of alcohol turned their sights on a new ‘peril’ - the Movie industry. These joyless wowsers were convinced Hollywood was an evil, decadent place that needed shutting down.  Hollywood took these people seriously, and by 1934 had bound itself to a restrictive morality code. Why did they do so? For one, Tinseltown w...

Railway War!

April 23, 2023 07:52 - 38 minutes - 39.1 MB

This week, we’re going to ride the rails, in Colorado, USA - the year 1878. In the midst of a Railway boom in the USA, two tycoons go to war over narrow, twenty mile mountain pass. This week we’re examining the Royal Gorge war. Sources this week include: From the River to the Sea, by John Sedgwick. Postcapitalism, A Guide to Our Future by Paul Mason Life of Tom Horn, Government Scout and Interpreter by Tom Horn Tom Horn, The Controversial Life and Legacy of One of the Wild West’s Most F...

The Diaspora

April 07, 2023 00:24 - 25 minutes - 26.2 MB

This week, three short tales of Medieval and Ancient people who - through circumstances way beyond their control - found themselves transported beyond the furthest extent of (to them at least) the known world. This episode we discuss Du Huan, Guillaume Boucher and Crassus’ lost Legion.          Sources this week (sorry all, will need to work back through this. 2/3 of this episode comes from OLD blog posts. However I’m definitely drawing from): The Golden Rhinoceros by Francois-Xavier Fauve...

Mussolini’s Hat - How the Mob Came to America

March 25, 2023 06:42 - 25 minutes - 26.2 MB

This week’s all about presidents, dictators, more mobsters, islands and how the theft of a hat was taken just  a little too seriously. Last fortnight we discussed the Black Hand, this episode we follow up and discuss why the Mob finally came to America.          Sources this week include: Five Families by Selwyn Raab  And The Black Hand by Stephan Talty (As well as several articles I’ll link to later) The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month a...

The Black Hand

March 13, 2023 01:27 - 35 minutes - 34.4 MB

Death threats, child kidnappings, fire-bombings… A naked man in a barrel? This week I discuss the shadowy practice that came to be known as The Black Hand, and detective Joseph Petrosino.              Sources this week include: Five Families by Selwyn Raab  And The Black Hand by Stephan Talty (As well as several articles I’ll link to later) The blog post of the episode is here.   Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free T...

Roxelana

February 24, 2023 09:12 - 22 minutes - 23 MB

This week, we travel to the court of the tenth Ottoman Emperor - though this tale is only tangentially about Suleiman the Magnificent. It’s a bit of an old cliche to say behind every great man is a great woman - but it is fair to say Suleiman was married to a remarkable Ukrainian lady, who left a lasting impact on their empire. What do we know about Roxelana/Hurrem Sultan/Aleksandra?  Far too little, but here’s what little I can tell you…            Sources this week include:  Empress of ...

The Island

February 07, 2023 19:42 - 26 minutes - 28.8 MB

First discovered on New Year’s Day 1739, and situated 1,600 Kilometres from the nearest trade route, Bouvet Island is the most remote island on Earth. Uninhabitable, windswept and dangerous - it has, all the same, accrued two historical mysteries. This week Simone discusses the abandoned lifeboat, and The Vela Incident.               Sources this week include: (sorry all, I’ll fill it in later) The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 US a month and ge...

The Dog Days’ King

January 25, 2023 01:15 - 26 minutes - 28 MB

Jorgen Jorgensen, born in Copenhagen, Denmark to a watchmaker, lived the kind of life most seen in picaresque novels like Voltaire’s Candide or Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon - but another way to sum him up would be he lived the life of that guy in Sinatra’s That’s Life - He was a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a King. There is another P word that, sadly, summed the adventurer’s life up - one that cast a shadow over much of his later life.  Sources this week include:  The Collect...

The Frost Fair

December 21, 2022 03:50 - 11 minutes - 12.2 MB

Happy Holidays all! This week we travel back to the Thames river, scene of The Revenge of the Tallysticks, to discuss the Great Frost Fair of 1683-4.  Tales of History and Imagination will be back with some new episodes on January 25th 2023. In the meantime I’m hoping to re-upload several older episodes. Keep an eye on the social media accounts for details as I’ll be dropping them back into the feed whenever they’re done…               Sources this week include: This was part of a much lon...

Madame Fiocca - Part Two

December 17, 2022 00:23 - 22 minutes - 23 MB

In Madame Fiocca part two we discuss Nancy Wake’s return to France, and time with the Maquis - bands of French resistance agents camping out in the forests.  This is part Two of a Two Part series. Part One is HERE. Blog readers, I’ll get some extra artwork up tomorrow when I’m back home. I left my Android tablet home, so had no access to the pictures.              Sources this week include: I’ll update later, in the meantime, my main text was Nancy Wake by Peter Fitzsimons. The blog post...

Madame Fiocca - Part One

December 11, 2022 07:19 - 20 minutes - 21 MB

Nancy Wake was known by many names. The Nazis called her the White Mouse, a resourceful agent of the resistance, who evaded their clutches. Britain’s Special Operations Executive called her Hélène. She was a key member of their Freelance cell, working to bring the Nazis down. To Marseille’s high society, she was Madame Fiocca, an intrepid foreign journalist who fell in love with one of their most eligible bachelors, and subsequently become one of their own. To the French resistance she was t...

A Few Short Tales on Trans Awareness Week 2022

November 27, 2022 05:15 - 19 minutes - 19.9 MB

This week’s Tale is, moving forwards, an annual topic I’d like to return to each November - as I do spooky things on Halloween and Christmassy things around Christmas. The week this script was written (13-19 November) was Transgender Awareness week. The 20th also marked Transgender Day of Remembrance - a commemorative day, originally in observance of the unsolved hate crime murder of Rita Hester, and subsequently a day to mourn the loss of trans people the world over that year.  Though I tr...

The Revenge of The Tally Sticks

November 13, 2022 20:04 - 25 minutes - 28.3 MB

Warning: The following is a long, shaggy dog tale about money, Anglo-Saxon England, things manufactured and things callously discarded. Mostly it’s about Tally Sticks, willow trees and revenge. It’s not me taking a new direction with the show so much as trying to write a ten minute ‘firebreak’ episode to get my second wind for the last couple of episodes and, oh boy did this one take off on me… Just like the ‘great fire of 1834’ did, by the way. Apologies for that I thought this one would ru...

Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?

October 30, 2022 01:53 - 24 minutes - 25.4 MB

On Sunday April 18th 1943 four boys head off on a boys-own adventure into Hagley Woods. A day of poaching birds eggs soon turned macabre, however - with the discovery of a skull in an elm tree. In this Halloween Tale we discuss a few of the possibilities around the poor Jane Doe, known to history simply as ‘Bella’.      Sources this week - Oh boy… I wrote this as a blog post years ago, after a YouTube video on the tale caught my eye. I thought that video was a Rob Gavagan episode, but if s...

The Wall Street Coup Part Two

October 21, 2022 11:27 - 29 minutes - 28.5 MB

This week’s tale is part two of a two parter. Part one can be found here Smedley Butler was, in his own time, the most decorated soldier in American History. A participant in 120 battles and armed conflicts spanning eleven wars, he served his nation with distinction, but increasingly felt his role was that of “A high class muscle-man for Big Business… a racketeer, a gangster for Capitalism” What would happen when, July 1st 1933, Big Business would come knocking at his door with an offer to...

The Wall Street Coup, Part One

October 03, 2022 06:21 - 29 minutes - 31.3 MB

This week’s tale is part one of a two parter. Part Two can be found Here. Smedley Butler was, in his own time, the most decorated soldier in American History. A participant in 120 battles and armed conflicts spanning eleven wars, he served his nation with distinction, but increasingly felt his role was that of “A high class muscle-man for Big Business… a racketeer, a gangster for Capitalism” What would happen when, July 1st 1933, Big Business would come knocking at his door with an offer to...

Oliver (the Man in the Box)…

September 06, 2022 21:00 - 16 minutes - 16.9 MB

Note: As per last episode - A few weeks back I had a script half done for an episode on Smedley Butler and the Wall Street Putsch. It looked set to run well in excess of my usual 25 minutes. The following episode will likely be a similar length. I set those scripts aside as I had just started a new role at my day job, and was worried homework for the new job might throw everything into disarray. We’ll pick up on those regular episodes in two weeks’ time.  Trigger Warning: This one gets a l...

The Sin-Eater, Wizard of Mauritius & Mr Good Day - Three Work Tales

August 22, 2022 09:42 - 17 minutes - 18.3 MB

Note: I had a different subject in mind for this week’s Tale, and was around 3,000 words into what was shaping up to be a longer than average script - when things came up at my day job. Those things are great things - but they required me shelving that episode for a couple of weeks, and improvising. As my world is all about the 9 to 5 this week, let’s talk Sin Eaters, The Wizard of Mauritius and a man known to Berkeley California as ‘Mr Good Day’.  Sources this week Include - This Atlas Ob...

The Many Deaths of Glenn Miller

August 07, 2022 04:24 - 20 minutes - 20.3 MB

Glenn Miller was a trombonist, composer, superstar bandleader, and a war hero. On 15th December he hitched a ride on a plane across the English Channel - and was never seen again.  This week we discuss some of the many, alleged deaths of them remarkable Mr Miller.  Note: Normally I’m fairly claiming all music yours truly - the ‘music box’ arrangement of Miller’s Moonlight Serenade (1935) at the beginning is my interpretation of his composition cribbed by ear off of the original.  Later in...

The Ghost & The Darkness

July 19, 2022 18:45 - 18 minutes - 18.3 MB

This week we’re in Tsavo, Kenya, 1898. John Henry Patterson has recently arrived in the region, to oversee the construction of a railway line through the country. Much could be said of him, but we’re far more interested in two other recent transplants to the region - a pair of resourceful man-eaters nicknamed The Ghost and The Darkness.     The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content.     Please leave a like an...

The Infernal Machine

July 05, 2022 19:30 - 15 minutes - 14.9 MB

Trigger Warning: The following episode discusses a mass shooting. I’ve left all the foley sounds out and do my best to treat the subject matter with reverence - but if in doubt it’s fine to miss this one - I’ll be back in a fortnight with a tale of some big cats…  This week we travel from 1835 France, to Paris’ Boulevard du Temple (made famous in 1839 by Louis Daguerre for a different type of shooting), to The US Civil War, to the British seaside town of Southampton in the late 1870s. The o...

Minisode: Spencer Percival

June 23, 2022 06:28 - 12 minutes - 13.4 MB

Trigger Warning: The following episode discusses political assassination. Also a quick note: this wasn’t the episode I had in mind for the second of my ‘From the Vaults’ episodes this break. I recorded both Carrington Event and The Bagradas Dragon with strained vocal cords (it shows in Carrington, and much more on Bagradas). I have had this week’s episode recorded since I bought the Rodecaster recording console. It was originally planned as a reserve episode. I’ll come back to The Bagrada...

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