Tales of History and Imagination

In 1612 Lancaster, England was abuzz with several reports of witchcraft - the new moral panic to have just hit England after a certain King of Scotland got a promotion and brought some strange ideas south with him. The following is the story of how the witch hunts affected two families - the Devices and the Chattoxes. I’ve split this episode into two parts as it was running closer to an hour than...

This week we’re in the town of Campden, Gloucestershire. The date August 16th, 1660. William Harrison, the ageing rent collector - disappears while on a two mile walk to Charringworth. A local man is arrested, and a disturbing tale of betrayal emerges - but was any of it true?   The blog post of the episode is here.   Check out the blog at historyandimagination.com For just $2 US a month you can s...

South Side Chicago Still think of him often… so today we’re talking bout Willie ‘Wimp’ Stokes and his Cadillac Coffin.    This week’s Patreon only episode is on Idi Amin and the Enfundu. For just $2 US a month you can support the show, and get access to exclusive content .   The blog post of the episode is here . Check out the blog at historyandimagination.com Please leave a like or review on your...

There was a boy, a very strange, enchanted boy - both his prototypical hippie lifestyle, long before the summer of love - and the ethereal song he left us in 1947 have fascinated me endlessly since first reading his Tale. Today, we discuss eden ahbez, and how the song Nature Boy came to be.  Patreon episodes will start next episode, to help me make the show please show some love here !   Read the...

In an age where female reporters were few and far between, and wrote on little more than fashion and gardening - Nellie Bly got locked up in a ‘madhouse’ to expose the horrors of such an institution. In this 10 minute episode Simone discusses her 10 days in a madhouse.  Check back in in a week’s time for a Patreon bonus episode - am playing catch up with those this week.    You can read the blog p...

Content warning! I discuss a violent death in this Tale, and allude to another. When John Whiteside Parsons – Jack to his friends – died suddenly in an explosion, one may have expected platitudes to the man. As a pioneering rocket scientist, the world -  and the future would owe much to his innovations. Instead, all anyone could talk about was the gossip about his lifestyle – and membership to a c...

This episode we attend a meeting at Greenwich palace, the date, some time in September 1593. The ‘Fairy Queen’ of England, Elizabeth I, awaits the arrival of one Grace O’Malley – the pirate Queen of Connaught. The two rulers had been at loggerheads for decades and in some ways they seemed wildly different characters – one a genteel Law-lord in charge of a nation.... the other a swashbuckling Warlo...

 This week's Tale takes place in 63 BC. The setting, the kingdom of Pontus – a once powerful Black Sea empire – now a region of Eastern Turkey. Mithridates VI Eupator paces, knowing his time is up. Like Hannibal, he spent decades at war with Rome – and like Hannibal he would meet his end like a caged lion. A renowned freedom fighter, he was also a genocidal despot. A paranoid megalomaniac, raised...

Hi all just dropping an admin note between old episodes. Basically, I recorded the first two seasons on a Blue Yeti microphone straight into an old laptop.  I then mixed those episodes without headphones… Some of them sound pretty rough.  In January 2022 I upgraded my mic, and bought a podcasting console in April 2022. Since then I’ve re-recorded several older episodes. Basically everything from T...

This is a re-upload of the original Episode 9, Buried Alive! It’s the same script as in 2020, but recorded with much better gear. I’ll be re-uploading the first 25 or so throughout 2022 and 2023 This week's Tale is a quick, bonus tale. I’ll be back with proper episodes 21st April. Content warning this episode is all about premature burial – and was first posted Halloween 2020. You can read the epi...

This is a re-upload of the original Episode 5, The Beast of Gevaudan. It’s the same script as in 2019, but recorded with much better gear. I’ll be re-uploading the first 25 or so throughout 2022 and 2023 Today’s tale is set in the former province of Gevaudan in South-Central France. The years between 1764 and 1767, following the bloody, and costly Seven Years War – a Proto World War if ever there...

This is a re-upload of the original Episode 4, Eilean Mor. It’s the same script as in 2019, but recorded with much better gear. I’ll be re-uploading the first 25 or so throughout 2022 and 2023 The Flannan Isles, sometimes referred to as the 7 Hunters, are a tiny group of islands in the Outer Hebrides – a string of islands in the North of Scotland. Uninhabited, hilly and rocky, covered only by gras...

This is a re-upload of the original Episode 3, Tipu’s Tiger. It’s the same script as in 2020, but recorded with much better gear. I’ll be re-uploading the first 25 or so throughout 2022 and 2023 One day a prince named Tipu went out hunting in the forest with a friend. The experience would affect him for the rest of his life - reflecting in his art, signature, uniforms…. And musical instruments?  ...

  This is a re-upload of the original Episode 2, Hannibal in Bithynia. It’s the same script as in 2019, but recorded with much better gear. I’ll be re-uploading the first 25 or so throughout 2022 and 2023 Today’s we’re Asiatic town of Libyssa, in Bithynia – modern day Turkey. The date, some time around 182 BCE. Hannibal Barca, one of the greatest Generals to ever live, is pacing his enclosure like...

This is a re-upload of the original Episode 1, Martial Bourdin. It’s the same script as in 2019, but recorded with much better gear. I’ll be re-uploading the first 25 or so throughout 2022 and 2023. “At 4:45pm precisely, GMT, 15th February 1894, the grounds of Greenwich Park, London – home of the Royal Observatory, and a clock we’ll discuss later – are shaken by a resounding boom. Staff at the obs...