Willy Willy Harry Stee...

Willy Willy Harry Stee, Harry Dick John Harry Three. One Two Three Neds, Richard Two........ Charlie Higson's canter through the Monarchy takes us to Richard The 2nd . You'd think by now that they'd have got the hang of this whole King thing. What to do. What not to do. Well, they hadn't and Richard II is a good example of the 'What Not To Do' category. Charlie's proper historian this episode sees...

Willy Willy Harry Stee, Harry Dick John Harry Three, One Two Three Neds..... Yes, its another chance to hear Charlie Higson reach the third of his Neds, Edward III and for once in our story he actually turned out to be a half decent king, or so it was thought at the time. Find out how he contended with fighting the Scots, the French and the Black Death. Charlie's proper historian this episode is H...

Willy Willy Harry Stee, Harry Dick John Harry Three, One Two Three Neds..... So goes the rhyme Charlie Higson learnt at school, each a Monarch and each seemingly unable to learn any lessons from their predecessor, as ably demonstrated by this episode's King, Edward The 2nd. Find out how his disastrous relationships, especially with Piers Gaveston gave rise to his downfall at the hands of his own w...

In this episode Alice Loxton joins Charlie Higson to talk about her new book, ‘Eleanor’. In 1290, England mourned the death of a queen, Eleanor of Castile, beloved wife of King Edward I, the warrior king. Her body was carried on a 200-mile journey from Lincoln to London, a solemn procession that would become immortalized in stone. To mark the places where it laid, a heartbroken Edward commissioned...

Willy Willy Harry Stee, Harry, Dick, John, Harry Three, One Two Three Neds.........Well in this episode Charlie Higson concerns himself with Ned No.1.. Edward The 1st, Edward Longshanks or The Hammer Of The Scots, although whilst he did a lot of hammering, the nails weren't really driven home very well. Charlie's 'Proper Historian' for this episode is the excellent Marc Morris , author of A Great...

In this BRAND NEW episode from Charlie Higson , he mixes History and Cartography to bring you the authors of a book that shows that a map might not be the honest, accurate and useful tool you once thought. Born on Youtube, T he Map Men has been an internet sensation and their new book 'This Way Up' is a funny and fascinating journey into the maps that messed up: big time! In this chat with Mark Co...

Willy Willy Harry Stee, Harry, Dick, John, Harry Three......... Charlie Higson continues his canter through the Monarchy and along with Henry, comes Simon De Montfort. Was Henry weak and inept while Simon held the real power? We'll find out as Charlie welcomes this week's proper historian, Sophie Therese Ambler  author of a biography of Simon de Montfort called -  The Song of Simon de Mo...

Willy Willy Harry Stee, Harry Dick John ......... Charlie Higson's romp through the middle ages lands on King John , who hasn't been fondly remembered. BUT...was he really that bad a King? Well, yes. He really was. In fact he was worse than we thought. Find out just how rubbish a monarch he was as Charlie digs into his hopeless life, together with this episode's proper historian, Professor Nick Vi...

Willy Willy Harry Stee, Harry Dick....... In this episode, Charlie Higson explores Richard I, or to give him his popular name Richard The Lionheart . Noble, considerate and fair.....according to Walt Disney, however Charlie digs a little deeper and finds a King of England who, well, wasn't in England very much. With guest proper historian, the excellent Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets &...

Willy Willy Harry Stee, Harry......yes, Charlie Higson reaches Monarch number 5 in the shape of Henry II , a man who fought and married his way to the top only for his wife and sons to rebel against him and start a revolt. What would you do? Well in this episode you'll find out exactly what Henry II did and how he did it. Helen Castor , author of 'She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Eli...

The saga continues as Charlie Higson brings you the story of Stephen & Matilda. When Henry I died, the crown should have fallen to his daughter, the Empress Matilda . BUT Stephen of Blois got there first to claim the crown and together with his wife, a different Matilda, Matilda of Boulogne .....it all went horribly wrong as you'll hear. Charlie's proper historian guest is Cath Hanley author o...

Imagine you have two brothers. One of them is King of England, the other two want to be. What would YOU do? Well how about this. You have the brother who is King killed in a convenient hunting accident, then lock the other one up for the rest of his life. Farfetched? Then listen on as Charlie Higson continues his personal history of the extraordinary story of the Monarchs of England, assisted by t...

In this, the final episode of the Summer / Autumn History Book Club , Charlie Higson welcome a talented young historian who is really making waves in the social media world. Katie Kennedy, also known on Tik Tok as 'The History Gossip' is dedicated to popularising history and making it accessible and relatable – and she’s done all this while being a student and studying history at university. Earli...

In this second chance to hear episode, Charlie Higson continues his voyage through the rhyme of 'Willy Willy Harry Stee', stopping at the second Willy, King William the 2nd otherwise known as William Rufus. This week's proper expert is James Hawes , author of the smash hit ' The Shortest History of England ’, who’s been in the bestseller charts as both a crime novelist and a popular historian. In...

In the special episode of Willy Willy Harry Stee , Charlie Higson digs deep into the way history is being used, or mis-used. His guest is Dr Rachel Moss, a medieval historian at the University of Northampton, who has been awarded a prestigious joint research grant from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust to investigate how far-right groups in Britain have historically misused medieval ima...

With the publication of the book of the podcast, Willie Willie Harry Stee , (available now in ALL bookshops, both those made of bricks and those made of data), Charlie Higson thought it would be a good idea to give you another chance to hear the podcast version of the monarchs, in order, starting with William the Conqueror , otherwise known as William the Bastard. The question is WHY was he known...

Welcome to this very special episode, timed to coincide with the official launch of Charlie Higson's book of the podcast, Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee: An Epically Short History of Our Kings and Queens. Charlie is joined by the book's illustrator, formerly known as Britain's Top Light Entertainer under his stage name Vic Reeves, the acclaimed artist Jim Moir. The book is OUT NOW so order it here......

And so it came to pass that  Charlie Higson's  epic podcast  Willie Willie Harry Stee  made its long awaited transformation from  Podcast  to  Book! Yes, on  October 9th , Charlie's personal history of the monarchy becomes a literary work, with deliciously witty illustrations by Jim Moir. It's a rip-roaring romp through history that takes in the Normans, Pla...

In this episode of his Willy Willy Harry Stee Book Club, Charlie Higson looks at a new book which uses eye-witness accounts to paint a stark picture of the start of World War 1. As war broke out in the summer of 1914, not a nation on Earth understood the magnitude of what they were about to face. To win it, whole populations must be mobilised, and neutrality was impossible to practice. Our underst...

In this edition of the Summer History Reading Book Club, Charlie Higson is on a witch hunt. As a woman, if you lived in Scotland in the 1500s, there was a very good chance that you, or someone you knew, would be tried as a witch. Witch hunts ripped through the country for over 150 years, with at least 4,000 accused, and many women's fates sealed by a grizzly execution of strangulation, followed by...

In this episode of the Summer Reading Book Club, Charlie Higson is looking at a book which explores art history in a unique way. It's called the History of Art in One Sentence: 500 years of art - but funny , written by Verity Babbs. Verity has carved out her own cultural space as an art historian, comedian and presenter. To quote from her website, Verity's work focuses on making the art world more...

In this special episode of Willy Willy Harry Stee , Charlie Higson takes a moment to look at the history of the English flag, the Union Jack and the Cross of St George. Where did they come from? What do they mean? What do they represent? With the current outbreak of flag raising around the country and furious arguments about what these flags represent, Charlie un-furls the truth to help us underst...

In this edition of  Charlie Higson's  Summer Reading History Book Club, he looks at the history between England and India. Before the East India Company and before the British Empire, England was an unimportant backwater. Seeking better fortunes, 16th and 17th century merchants ventured to the empire of the mighty Mughals, attempting to sell coarse woollen broadcloth that nobody really w...

Joining Charlie Higson on this edition of the Summer Reading History Book Club is comedian, musician and writer, Al Murray. As well as being the man behind the Pub Landlord , Al is also able, in his own words, to 'bang on' about his love of World War II history for a long time. Which suits us just fine. Al is the author of Watching War Films With My Dad, Command: How the Allies Learned to Win the...

In this episode of his Summer Reading History Book Club,  Charlie Higson  discusses his favourite book about possibly the most famous person who has ever lived. Queen Elizabeth II.  Virginia Woolf compared her to a caterpillar; Anne Frank kept pictures of her on the wall of her annex and Donald Trump offended her; E.M. Forster confessed he would have married her, if only she ha...