Biography

As the Queen’s family life grew more complex, the relationship between palace and press intensified. But balancing the need for security and privacy against her very public responsibilities was never simple. So who was the real woman beneath the crown? How did she deal with the darkest years of her reign, and the grief of losing her beloved husband? And how will history remember her extraordinary...

Spanning seventy years, Queen Elizabeth II’s reign saw the world change beyond recognition. From her earliest public appearances, representing her father King George VI, to her roles as sister, wife, mother, and mother-in-law, she was never far from the headlines. But what was life like for the young princess, who dreamed of a baby brother who might take the throne instead? How did she modernize a...

In 1509, at just seventeen years old, Henry VIII was crowned King of England. Over the next four decades, he would burn through six marriages, bankrupt the nation, and vandalise his country’s cultural heritage in his quest for supreme power. But how did England’s most eligible bachelor degenerate into a bloated despot, and one of the worst husbands in history? Was Henry simply a psychopath, or a c...

Forged by the Great Depression, Bonnie and Clyde became icons of lawlessness, thrilling and shocking America with their crime sprees and doomed romance. But what drove them to lives of such violence? How did they evade the full might of the police for so long? And what finally brought their adventure to an end? This is a biography of Bonnie and Clyde. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by Paul Mc...

Despised by the English, mistrusted by the Scottish nobles, and revered by his countrymen, William Wallace is synonymous with the battle for Scottish freedom. But scratch away at the legend, and even the most basic details are disputed. Where he was born, who he married, and what he did after his famous battle at Stirling Bridge. Thanks to the brutal nature of his death, he doesn’t even have a gra...

By the time she died in 2005, Rosa Parks was known around the world as an icon of activism. Her act of defiance one ordinary Thursday afternoon in Montgomery, Alabama catapulted her to the forefront of the battle for racial equality in America. But what was her story before that fateful moment in 1955? And what course did her life take afterward? This is a biography of Rosa Parks. A Noiser podcast...

In the early eighteenth century, one man made his name as the most notorious pirate of all time. The legend of Edward Thatch, aka "Blackbeard", has spawned television shows, novels, and major motion pictures. Stories abound of his wild eyes striking fear into enemy hearts, of the six pistols strapped to his chest, and of his arrival in battle with his jet-black beard set ablaze. But how much is fa...

The so-called “Queen of Crime”, Agatha Christie remains the best-selling novelist of all time, as well as one of the most prolific. Across 66 novels, 14 short-story collections, and 20 stage plays, she depicted the evil lurking in the hearts of ordinary people with forensic precision. But how did this homeschooled daughter of a privileged English family learn so much about poisons, psychopaths and...