Tales of History and Imagination

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...

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 inc...

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 m...

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...

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,...

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 Tal...

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 o...

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...

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 W...

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 s...

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 th...

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...

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....

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 exclus...

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...

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 wa...

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...

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 ge...

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...

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 Interpre...

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 bl...

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 l...

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...

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 litt...

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) Th...