Histories of the Unexpected

RE-RELEASE: THE UNEXPECTED HISTORY OF MOTHERS! A boy’s best friend is his mother’   (Norman Bates –  Psycho,  written and directed by Joseph Stefano and Alfred Hitchcock, 1960). Welcome to Histories of the Unexpected where you will discover the history of things you did not know even had a history, like the history of nonsense or the history of the itch. For this episode l...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis explore the UNEXPECTED history of HUNGER! Which is all about the history of free school meals (which meanders from the 1941 free school meals policy via 'Maggie Thatcher Milk Snatcher' to Marcus Rashford and Jamie Oliver in more modern history) and Ernesto Che Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries . It is also all about f...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis bid a heartfelt goodbye to the UNEXPECTED history of FAREWELLS! Which is all about the history of separation, WWI and the trenches, letters to loved ones thrown from a train in a matchbox, and love letters to the dead in sixteenth-century Korea. It is also all about unexpected history of ancient tombs, travel and...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis hide behind the hedge of the past and jump out with the UNEXPECTED history of SURPRISES! Which is all about the history of Jack-in-the-Boxes, the remarkable finds uncovered by the archaeological excavations of Britain’s stone age culture at Orkney's Ness of Brodgar, the Schifferstadt gold hat, and ambushes and su...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis take a deep drink from the glass of the past to deliver to you the UNEXPECTED history of THIRST! Which is all about the history of California and access to water, and a global history of drinking water. It is also about the Pablo Valencia's extraordinary trek through the Arizona desert and the scientific study of...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis humbly and in full solidarity with the people of Ukraine explored the unexpected History of BRAVERY! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis walk down the garden path of history and through the front door of the past to move into the UNEXPECTED history of HOUSES! Which is all about those Cambridge Regius Professors J.B. Bury and G.R. Elton on the building blocks of history (of course it is - it's about the Houses of History); it's about the discovery...

In this Homeschooling History episode, the Histories of the Unexpected duo, James and Sam, explore the fascinating history of HELPING OUT. From discussions of charity, philanthropy, the foundation of Barnardo's, the Kindertransport and WWII, and giving and much, much more, James and Sam rampage around history of helping out before settling on the fascinating history of WWI and the Home Front. The...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis try to breathe new life into the unexpected history of CORPSES! Which is all about the eccentric Cornish landowner Sir James Tillie (1645-1713), who demanded that upon his death his body should be tied to a chair facing the River Tamar in a purpose-built mausoleum at Pentillie Castle (and he was to be fed every d...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis get all romantic with a St Valentine's Day special on the history of gthe colour RED! Which is all about romance and the history of emotions, via Macbeth and blood, early cinema and technicolour, and superstitions about red hair and red thread. It is also about the history of race, ethnography and native American...

In this Homeschooling History episode, the Histories of the Unexpected duo, James and Sam, explore the fascinating history of DIVORCE. From discussions of the early history of divorce, the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act, the scandalous Argyll divorce of the 1960s and much, much more, James and Sam rampage around history of divorce before settling on the fascinating history of Henry VIII, The King's G...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis do more than scratch the surface of the unexpected history of THE FLEA! Which is all about Victorian miniature dressed fleas and Mexican cultural traditions, real life flea circus's, and the English Renaissance poet, John Donne's influence on WWI poetry. It's also all about the movement of disease and the plague!...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis buzz around and sting you with the unexpected history of BEES! Which is all about medieval beekeeping, bees wax candles and changes in religious practices; as well as the superstitious practice of 'telling the bees', whereby individuals informed the bees of births and deaths in the family to prevent bad luck! It'...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis taking the winding stair of history to explore the unexpected history of STAIRCASES! Which is all about medieval castles, Victorian houses, the development (absence) and taxonomy of staircases (including spiral stairs), and Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It's also all...

In this Homeschooling History episode, the Histories of the Unexpected duo, James and Sam, explore the fascinating history of REVENGE. From discussions of revenge in the corridors of power at 10 Downing Street to Anglo Saxon Blood Feud, and Mafia Vendettas, James and Sam rampage around history of revenge before settling on the fascinating history of the Wars of the Roses and the Battle of St Alban...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis erupt forth with the unexpected history of VOLCANOES! Which is all about world-changing volcanic eruptions that have shaped human history (like.... the eruption of the Okmok volcano in 43 B.C. which possibly led not only to the fall of the Roman Republic but also to the rise of the Roman Empire); Munch's The Scre...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis take you all for a long country walk to exercise the unexpected history of DOGS! Which is all about Tudor gifts and Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII and sporting pastimes, and Mary Queen of Scots' lapdog; it's about the 1796 Dog Tax, and the attempt to contain dogs in 1738 in Edinburgh in the face of a rabies outbreak; an...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis unpack the unexpected history of PYJAMAS! Which is all about festive Christmas family traditions (yes, you've guessed it - matching family Christmas pyjamas), it's about the pre-history of the pyjamas in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the diary of Samuel Pepys and the Great Fire on London. It's also all a...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis uncover the fossilised remains of the past with unexpected history of DINOSAURS! Which in addition to being all about the Tyrannosaurus Rex or T -Rex, the stegosaurus and diplodocus and more is in fact all about Charles Dickens and Bleak House , which contains the brilliant lines : ' would not be wonderful to mee...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis wish listeners a HAPPY NEW YEAR with the unexpected history of RESOLUTIONS! Which is all about leafing through old notebooks, spiritual purity and self-improvement, and self-denial; sobriety, John Wesley and English Methodism; it's about power in Tudor England, paranoia, Victorian failure and medieval shoe throwi...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis get all festive ONE MORE TIME and inspired by the Christmas Story offer another Christmas special on the unexpected history of GENEROSITY! Which is all about the history of gift-giving and the change from Christmas being an adult affair, to one being centred on children and the family from the Victorian period on...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis get all festive ONE MORE TIME and inspired by the Christmas Story offer another Christmas special on the unexpected history of WISE MEN! Which is all about Christina Rossetti's 'A Christmas Carol', T.S. Eliot's 'The Journey of the Magi', as well as gestures of deference, Kowtowing in China and nineteenth- and twe...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis get all festive ONE MORE TIME and inspired by the Christmas Story offer another Christmas special on the unexpected history of BABIES! Which is all about fictional round robins and David Sedaris, literary depictions of the nativity via John Donne, Christina Rossetti, G.K. Chesterton and John Milton. ! It's also a...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis get all festive again and offer yet another Christmas special on the unexpected history of ELVES! Which is all about Louisa May Alcott, and unpublished novels, Swedish and Danish folklore, and the Yule Goat! It's also all about David Sedaris and working in Macy's Department Store in New York City at Christmas tim...

In this latest episode, the Unexpected duo, Professor James Daybell and Dr Sam Willis get all festive again and offer another Christmas special on the unexpected history of STARS! Which is all about celestial navigation, walking at night, being guided by the stars, telling the time, and predicting the weather; and a 7th-century Chinese star chart and political power in Ancient China! It's also all...