Tales of History and Imagination

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 as Trans. My list of examples veered from groups, like the Galli, to individuals - like Eleanor Rykener. Society once had places for Trans people - more often than not religious orders - but the church dismantled a lot of this at the Council of Nicaea. Or at least they did so for Trans women. How did the church react to history’s Trans men? Today, with a little help from a couple of historical Trans cowboys and a few others, we take a look. Sources Include: The last six or seven minutes of this episode owes a huge debt to Nate Hale’s The Conspirators episode ‘The Secret Life of Pope Joan.’ Nate does this way better than I do, and in much greater detail. Go check his episode out. Susan Stryker’s ‘Transgender History’ was invaluable. I used this English Heritage. Org article to fact check the Galli. This American Battlefields article on Albert Cashier This NY Times article on Charley Parkhurst And this National Women’s History Museum article on Deborah Sampson, written by Debra Michals. I’ll add a handful of other articles later. Much of this episode was put together from leftover notes from the TDOR 2022 episode. Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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, but the episode discusses a claimant for the role of Jewish Messiah. I don’t know if this needs a trigger warning, but better safe than sorry? Sources Include: I wrote this a long time ago, and can only say on polishing the old script, I reopened When Prophesy Fails by Leon Festinger. and Madame Blavatsky by Marion Meade. Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing mostly yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 Tale contains discussion of rape and dehumanisation. Sources Include: In The Footsteps of The Russian Snowman by Dmitri Bayanov. This DNA Explained article on Zana (author not listed.) This travelogue on Abkhazia. This Weird NJ article on Oliver the Humanzee by Mark Sceurman. I referred to Britannica to confirm several details that were already in my head And came around a dozen news articles from 2015 with much the same text one to the next… Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 out around ten minutes shorter than I planned in editing. I had no plans of dropping a minisode this week, but it needed the cuts to make it flow. Also my voice was the worse for wear when recording and does sound a little strained... Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 blog posts I’ve taken down some time back, which I need to work back from… but the main newer sources were The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris Femina, A New History of the Middle Ages… by Janina Ramirez The English and Their History by Robert Tombs Cameos from English History from Rollo to Edward II by Charlotte M Yonge And the following two are a bit odd… A Book of Giants by Henry Lanier (mostly folk tales of mythical giants, but has a chapter on real world giants.) And Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Walter Pyle (There are a lot of near giant or legit giant men in this tale, so I fact checked their sizes as best I could through these two dusty old books.) Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, AND an Ad-Free Feed… Try our 7 Day Free Trial today. Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 Wake - Part one: where today we’ll delve into the Wessexes. Sources this week include: I promise I’ll fill this in tomorrow morning… The episode is already a day late, and it is a bit of a list. Sorry. Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 started off with Harry J. Maihoffer’s ‘Oblivion, The Mystery of West Point Cadet Richard Cox’ And found two podcasts this week far more useful This episode of Robin Warder’s The Trail Went Cold is excellent. And this episode of Disappearances was decent. Much of my information on West Point came from an old, unpublished blog post I’ve had saved to drafts for three years - I’ll be releasing it as a minisode on The Eggnog Riots for my Patrons on Patreon in coming days. I referred to this LA Times article. And this article from Ohio Wesleyan University Jim Underwood’s articles, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. This West Point Alumni article And God knows whatever book I first picked this tale up from more than twenty years ago… Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. Please leave Tales of History and Imagination a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 this as a blog post to commemorate 50 posts on the blog, way back in 2020 - apologies, I never took down my sources at the time. Though in re-writing I ALSO referred to Josh Hrala’s ‘The Man Who Defamed Edgar Allan Poe.’ Several articles on The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore’s website. This National Parks Service piece. Natasha Geiling’s ‘The Still Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe’ Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. | Patreon | Please leave Tales of History and Imagination a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 article on J.P. Holland This Cecil Bloom article in Liberal History And Mike Dash’s The Mysterious Mr ZedZed; the Wickedest Man in the World. I’ve got another dozen or so articles to share on Ottoman ‘firefighters’ and submarines that I’ll get up tomorrow. Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Though I made a quick arrangement of ‘My Grandfather’s Clock’ (Henry Clay Work) this episode. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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. Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Book 7 of Procopius’ The History of the Wars This excellent blog post on Porphyrius. Stories to Wash Hands by, from Nate Di Meo’s The Memory Palace Topsy the Elephant was a Victim of her Captors by Kat Eschner And This Smithsonian write up on Cher Ami Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. | Patreon | Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 exclusive content. Not sure if you want to invest? Try our 7 Day Free Trial. Please leave Tales a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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. Please leave Tales a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing normally all yours truly. This week I heavily borrowed from Toni Basil’s Mickey (M. Chapman, N. Chinn, (T. Basil should have a co-write for the cheerleading bit) ) Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 want to invest? Try our 7 Day Free Trial. Please leave Tales a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. This week I again used my arrangements of Moonlight Serenade (Glenn Miller) and Lullaby of the Leaves (Bernice Petkere, Joe Young.) Simone’s About Me.

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 listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing normally all yours truly. I’m burnt out but vaguely remember using Lullaby of the Leaves on this one? (Composers Bernice Petkere and Joe Young) Simone’s About Me.

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 get access to exclusive content. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. This week I used my arrangements of Moonlight Serenade (Glenn Miller) and Lullaby of the Leaves (Bernice Petkere, Joe Young.) Simone’s About Me.

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 1934 had bound itself to a restrictive morality code. Why did they do so? For one, Tinseltown was rocked by a number of serious scandals in the 1920s. We’re looking at three of the bigger ones in the following weeks, the Fatty Arbuckle case, the murder of William Desmond Taylor - and first, the story of Olive Thomas - Hollywood’s first scandal. 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 $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. | Patreon | Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 Interpreter by Tom Horn Tom Horn, The Controversial Life and Legacy of One of the Wild West’s Most Famous Gunslingers by Charles River Publishers. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. | Patreon | Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 blog posts. However I’m definitely drawing from): The Golden Rhinoceros by Francois-Xavier Fauvelle The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan Genghis Khan and The Making of The Modern World by Jack Weatherford (And a bunch of articles on the Academia and Jstor databases I’ll link to later) The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. | Patreon | Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 later) The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. | Patreon | Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is by sharing an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. | Patreon | Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is by sharing an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | Music, writing, narration, mixing normally all yours truly. This week I use, and re-use Enrico Caruso’s 1904 recording of Una Furtiva Lagrima (Gaetano Donizetti) and provide my own ‘drunken’ version of the track - the reason for doing so I hope comes across in the context, otherwise a lot of people will be asking WTF??? Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |

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 little, but here’s what little I can tell you… Sources this week include: Empress of the East by Leslie Pierce. Ibrahim Pasha by Hester Jenkins And The Lion House: The Coming of a King by Christopher de Bellaigue 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. I’m currently revamping, and will be dropping re-recorded bonus content weekly for the next two months. The next episode, out on March 1st is Charles Delschau’s Memoirs. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly (sorry, I’m a little croaky on this one.) For more information on Simone click here.

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) 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. This month’s episode was on Yasuke. If we reach my second pledge level I’ll start matching main episodes one to one. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Jorgen Jorgensen, born in Copenhagen, Denmark to a watchmaker, lived the kind of life most seen in picaresque novels like Voltaire’s Candide or Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon - but another way to sum him up would be he lived the life of that guy in Sinatra’s That’s Life - He was a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a King. There is another P word that, sadly, summed the adventurer’s life up - one that cast a shadow over much of his later life. Sources this week include: The Collected Works of Marcus Clarke - by Marcus Clarke. The Convict King - by Jorgen Jorgensen. And Australia’s Most Unbelievable True Stories - by Jim Haynes. 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. I’m currently revamping, and will be dropping re-recorded bonus content weekly for the next two months. February’s episode, out on 1 February is Yasuke. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing normally all yours truly. This week I borrowed the melody for Waltzing Matilda (words the poet Banjo Patterson - click here to check out his most famous work The Man From Snowy River… music to his poem by Christina McPherson) For more information on Simone click here.

Happy Holidays all! This week we travel back to the Thames river, scene of The Revenge of the Tallysticks, to discuss the Great Frost Fair of 1683-4. Tales of History and Imagination will be back with some new episodes on January 25th 2023. In the meantime I’m hoping to re-upload several older episodes. Keep an eye on the social media accounts for details as I’ll be dropping them back into the feed whenever they’re done… Sources this week include: This was part of a much longer episode which, on first pass ran to two hours - and contained a dozen shorter tales - so I consulted articles rather than books this week. This History Today blog post, this Historic UK dot com article, this Museum of London article, this Art UK article And a couple of jstor articles (which will be paywalled to most people) were consulted. I should also mention, Dr Sean Munger’s Second Decade podcast episode on the Last Frost Fair got me tuned into this topic. Though at time of writing Sean hasn’t posted a new episode to Second Decade for 18 months, I strongly recommend his show. 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. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter (for now), Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing normally all yours truly. This week I threw together covers of Sleigh Ride (Leroy Anderson). God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Traditional, thought to have been written in response to a spate of newer-sounding hymns in the 1500s) And Winter Wonderland (Felix Bernard & Richard Bernhard Smith) For more information on Simone click here.

In Madame Fiocca part two we discuss Nancy Wake’s return to France, and time with the Maquis - bands of French resistance agents camping out in the forests. This is part Two of a Two Part series. Part One is HERE. Blog readers, I’ll get some extra artwork up tomorrow when I’m back home. I left my Android tablet home, so had no access to the pictures. Sources this week include: I’ll update later, in the meantime, my main text was Nancy Wake by Peter Fitzsimons. 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. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter (for now), Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing normally all yours truly. This week I made use of Fred Godfrey and Robert Kewley’s Bless em All (though a different arrangement to last week). For more information on Simone click here.

Nancy Wake was known by many names. The Nazis called her the White Mouse, a resourceful agent of the resistance, who evaded their clutches. Britain’s Special Operations Executive called her Hélène. She was a key member of their Freelance cell, working to bring the Nazis down. To Marseille’s high society, she was Madame Fiocca, an intrepid foreign journalist who fell in love with one of their most eligible bachelors, and subsequently become one of their own. To the French resistance she was the tough as nails Madame Andrée - she could kill a man with her bare hands. To Australia, the land she fled in her teens she was Nancy Wake - war hero. This is part one of a Two Part series. Part Two is Here. Sources this week include: I’ll update fully later, in the meantime, my main text was Nancy Wake by Peter Fitzsimons. 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. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing normally all yours truly. This week I recorded covers of Beautiful Dreamer (Stephen Foster) Moonlight Serenade (Glenn Miller, Mitchell Parish) Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major (Art Noel, Don Pelosi) and Bless ‘em All (Fred Godfrey, Robert Kewley) Everything else is mine. For more information on Simone click here.

This week’s Tale is, moving forwards, an annual topic I’d like to return to each November - as I do spooky things on Halloween and Christmassy things around Christmas. The week this script was written (13-19 November) was Transgender Awareness week. The 20th also marked Transgender Day of Remembrance - a commemorative day, originally in observance of the unsolved hate crime murder of Rita Hester, and subsequently a day to mourn the loss of trans people the world over that year. Though I try to keep myself out of the tales, as a rule, I see no reason not to tell the tales of other trans people from history once a year - cause Trans Visibility Matters. This year we’re going far back into the timeline to discuss an angry poet, a medieval barmaid, a couple of pagan religious orders, an emperor and a warrior prince/princess… Sources this week include: I wrote this script largely from memory, but did refer to This brief write up in the Jewish Virtual Library This Vice Article Adrienne Mayor’s The Poison King I referred to Encyclopaedia Brittanica on a couple of details And, easily one of my favourite reads of 2022, Janina Ramirez’ Femina. 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. I’m currently revamping, and will be dropping re-recorded bonus content weekly for the next two months. December’s episode, out on The Enfundu should be out in the coming days. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter (for now), Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Warning: The following is a long, shaggy dog tale about money, Anglo-Saxon England, things manufactured and things callously discarded. Mostly it’s about Tally Sticks, willow trees and revenge. It’s not me taking a new direction with the show so much as trying to write a ten minute ‘firebreak’ episode to get my second wind for the last couple of episodes and, oh boy did this one take off on me… Just like the ‘great fire of 1834’ did, by the way. Apologies for that I thought this one would run to about 10 minutes… it tripled on me when putting pen to paper. We’ll be back to regular programming in two weeks’ time, if this worries you.. If there is something a little quirky you like in this episode, a reminder the Patreon tends to be a little quirkier than the main show in a similar way. Sources this week include: Tim Harford’s ‘Fifty Inventions That Helped Shape the Modern Economy’ Jacob Goldstein’s ‘Money; The True Story of a Made up Thing’ Marc Morris’ ‘The Anglo Saxons’ This British government website article on the great fire of 1834 A British Library article on Tally Sticks Prof Richard Murphy’s blog post on Charles II’s questionable financial behaviour in 1672, at Tax Research UK And this one from some company called Glint. 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. I’m currently revamping, and will be dropping re-recorded bonus content weekly for the next two months. December 1 I’ll be dropping the equally unusual tale of the Enfundu. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter (for now), Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing normally all yours truly. In this episode I use my own take on Ella Fitzgerald’s Lullaby of the Leaves (Bernice Petkere & Joe Young). I also use excerpts from NZ hard rock band Ishtar’s ‘Secret Love’ and ‘South of Sanity’ (S. Whitlow, D. Cannon, M. Wright). The rest of the music is all mine. For more information on Simone click here.

On Sunday April 18th 1943 four boys head off on a boys-own adventure into Hagley Woods. A day of poaching birds eggs soon turned macabre, however - with the discovery of a skull in an elm tree. In this Halloween Tale we discuss a few of the possibilities around the poor Jane Doe, known to history simply as ‘Bella’. Sources this week - Oh boy… I wrote this as a blog post years ago, after a YouTube video on the tale caught my eye. I thought that video was a Rob Gavagan episode, but if so he’s since taken it down. Next most likely YouTuber? The remarkable Cayleigh Elise - not that you could confuse the two YouTubers, but they were my go to’s at the time for True Crime. A few years back Cayleigh found the weight of her own content became too much for her - and scrapped her entire channel. This Unexplained Mysteries episode is also a likely source. This led me to several newspaper articles, like this one in The Independent, which is paywalled. This fantastic piece in the Birmingham Mail is a source, and well worth a read …. And several others, lost to my inattentiveness. This Crimereads article is, I’m 99% sure a source. As was 100% this article in The History Press. Josef Jacobs dot info is well worth checking out, not just for info on Jacobs, Jack Mossop and Clara Bauerle, but so much else besides with WW2 espionage leanings. 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. I’m currently revamping, and will be dropping re-recorded bonus content weekly for the next two months. November 1 I’m dropping a short tale on The Hammersmith Ghost. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing NORMALLY all yours truly. In this episode, however, I use my own quick takes on Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade (Miller + Mitchell Parish) Bless ‘Em All (First performed by George Formby, probably written by Fred Godfrey and Robert Kewley) And the WW2 drinking song Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major (Art Noel and Don Pelosi)… I had planned to throw together a version of Lili Marlene, and White Cliffs of Dover… but I ran out of time… The rest of the music is all mine. For more information on Simone click here.

This week’s tale is part two of a two parter. Part one can be found here Smedley Butler was, in his own time, the most decorated soldier in American History. A participant in 120 battles and armed conflicts spanning eleven wars, he served his nation with distinction, but increasingly felt his role was that of “A high class muscle-man for Big Business… a racketeer, a gangster for Capitalism” What would happen when, July 1st 1933, Big Business would come knocking at his door with an offer to serve them one final time? Sources this week - Full list coming (will fill in as time permits, sorry). My main texts however were The Plot to Seize the White House. The Shocking TRUE Story of The Conspiracy to Overthrow F.D.R by Jules Archer. War is a Racket by Smedley Butler In a rare case of Amazon letting me down, I couldn’t get a Kindle or Audible copy of Jonathan Katz’s Gangsters of Capitalism in my region (NZ/Australia) but his influence is all over a load of secondary sources, and well worth checking out. 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. I’m currently revamping, and will be dropping re-recorded bonus content weekly for the next two months. This week we’ll discuss the Enfundu. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support original, independent content is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

This week’s tale is part one of a two parter. Part Two can be found Here. Smedley Butler was, in his own time, the most decorated soldier in American History. A participant in 120 battles and armed conflicts spanning eleven wars, he served his nation with distinction, but increasingly felt his role was that of “A high class muscle-man for Big Business… a racketeer, a gangster for Capitalism” What would happen when, July 1st 1933, Big Business would come knocking at his door with an offer to serve them one final time? Sources this week - Full list coming (will fill in on Labour day later this month). My main texts however were The Plot to Seize the White House. The Shocking TRUE Story of The Conspiracy to Overthrow F.D.R by Jules Archer. War is a Racket by Smedley Butler In a rare case of Amazon letting me down, I couldn’t get a Kindle or Audible copy of Jonathan Katz’s Gangsters of Capitalism in my region (NZ/Australia) but his influence is all over a load of secondary sources, and well worth checking out. 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. I’m currently revamping, and will be dropping re-recorded bonus content weekly for the next two months. This week we’ll discuss the mystery of Otzi the Iceman. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Note: As per last episode - A few weeks back I had a script half done for an episode on Smedley Butler and the Wall Street Putsch. It looked set to run well in excess of my usual 25 minutes. The following episode will likely be a similar length. I set those scripts aside as I had just started a new role at my day job, and was worried homework for the new job might throw everything into disarray. We’ll pick up on those regular episodes in two weeks’ time. Trigger Warning: This one gets a little gory. This week’s tale starts in a pub in London, England, circa 1818. A cadre of upper middle-class professionals meet to discuss the day’s topics of interest. Among them, a ‘man in a box’ who a century and a half ago outlawed such frivolity. This is the tale of that man, Oliver - and how got here. Sources this week - I’ll fill this in, and backfill several previous episodes this week (I promise). The episode grew out of a blog post on History in Numbers a friend sent me, which veered off into several news articles, an old high school history book and an episode of Parcast Network’s Gone. 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. I’m currently revamping, and will be dropping re-recorded bonus content weekly for the next two months. This week we’ll discuss the mystery of Otzi the Iceman. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Note: I had a different subject in mind for this week’s Tale, and was around 3,000 words into what was shaping up to be a longer than average script - when things came up at my day job. Those things are great things - but they required me shelving that episode for a couple of weeks, and improvising. As my world is all about the 9 to 5 this week, let’s talk Sin Eaters, The Wizard of Mauritius and a man known to Berkeley California as ‘Mr Good Day’. Sources this week Include - This Atlas Obscura article on the Last Sin Eater by Natalie Zarrelli. The Wizard of Mauritius from Mike Dash’s excellent ‘A Blast From The Past’. Mr Good Day from a Fortean Times book named World’s Weirdest News Stories - however 90% of his content came from news articles written in Berkeley on Joseph Charles over the course of thirty years. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Glenn Miller was a trombonist, composer, superstar bandleader, and a war hero. On 15th December he hitched a ride on a plane across the English Channel - and was never seen again. This week we discuss some of the many, alleged deaths of them remarkable Mr Miller. Note: Normally I’m fairly claiming all music yours truly - the ‘music box’ arrangement of Miller’s Moonlight Serenade (1935) at the beginning is my interpretation of his composition cribbed by ear off of the original. Later in the piece Miller’s own (far superior) composition features. We close the episode, not on the regular theme, but on Miller’s arrangement of Leon Rene’s When The Swallows Come Back to Capistrano. Sources this week - I’ll fill this in, in full later. I worked mostly from an old Readers Digest Mystery book, articles from the LA Times and Irish Times, and several random facts I carry in my head about the utterly deplorable Mr Heidrich. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly - except where stated otherwise (see above). For more information on Simone click here.

This week we’re in Tsavo, Kenya, 1898. John Henry Patterson has recently arrived in the region, to oversee the construction of a railway line through the country. Much could be said of him, but we’re far more interested in two other recent transplants to the region - a pair of resourceful man-eaters nicknamed The Ghost and The Darkness. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, largely for Audiogram advertisements. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Trigger Warning: The following episode discusses a mass shooting. I’ve left all the foley sounds out and do my best to treat the subject matter with reverence - but if in doubt it’s fine to miss this one - I’ll be back in a fortnight with a tale of some big cats… This week we travel from 1835 France, to Paris’ Boulevard du Temple (made famous in 1839 by Louis Daguerre for a different type of shooting), to The US Civil War, to the British seaside town of Southampton in the late 1870s. The one thread between these tales? An Infernal Machine…. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please leave a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and now an Instagram. The show has a YouTube Channel, for Audiogram advertisements. I’m not big into Social Media but if you drop by and say hi I’ll shout back. | Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Trigger Warning: The following episode discusses political assassination. Also a quick note: this wasn’t the episode I had in mind for the second of my ‘From the Vaults’ episodes this break. I recorded both Carrington Event and The Bagradas Dragon with strained vocal cords (it shows in Carrington, and much more on Bagradas). I have had this week’s episode recorded since I bought the Rodecaster recording console. It was originally planned as a reserve episode. I’ll come back to The Bagradas Dragon. Spencer Percival was Prime Minister of Britain in interesting times. During his run, the formerly ‘Mad’ King George (III) went ‘mad’ again. A costly war with Napoleon was chewing through cash, and more importantly, lives. Percival’s reputation had also been marred by the disastrous Walcheran Expedition. All the same, on May 11th 1812, he was full of all the joys of the season as he walked to work on a hot summer’s day. Sadly, he had not counted on John Bellingham. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please a like and review wherever you listen. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. I promise I’ll be more active on two of these in coming months - drop by and say hello. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Strange, magical things were afoot in Boston, Massachusetts on September 2nd 1859, as telegraph machines took on a life of their own. That night the skies the world over put on a magnificent light show on e reporter described as ‘painfully lurid’. What caused this phenomenon? In Surrey, England an amateur astronomer named Richard Carrington had more than an inkling. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Heads up, I was suffering from strained vocal cords doing this one, add to that it’s from an older blog post of mine - so has some looong sentences to negotiate. I’m not ‘going for a new thing’ so much as just getting through the recording here.. Voice has more or less rebounded now, thx for asking… Please leave Tales a like and review. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

In Part Three of our Assassins series we discuss the Syrian Assassins, Crusaders, Saladin, yet more assassinations and Baybars the Mamluk as we continue in our examination of the Ismaili. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please leave me a like and review. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Follow the show on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

In Part Two of our Assassins series we discuss Mongols, Kwarazmians, Heretics, more assassinations and those camels as we continue in our examination of the Ismaili. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please leave a like and review. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Follow the show on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Admin Note: The following is part one of three part Tale. I’ll be releasing these fortnightly. There’s a tale from the Medieval Near East that persists in the modern day - some of the details are somewhat accurate - some less so. Up in the mountains of Persia and Syria, in inaccessible mountain fortresses, lives a cult of fearless killers. Led by a prototypical James Bond Supervillain, known as the ‘Man of the Mountain’ the cult is greatly feared for its murders of many kings, generals, administrators and holy men. Just who were the infamous Assassins really? In Part One we look at their founder, Hassan-i Sabbah The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. At the current pledge level I post a bonus episode a month, and will add more extras as the channel grows. Please leave a like and a review. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Follow the show on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest…. Yeah I know two of those are increasingly problematic - I may add more socials to the list in future - possibly remove a few? Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Quick admin note: I was planning on dropping a couple of 10 minute episodes in May, giving me a little time to plan out the next run. A couple of day to day things (I’m feeling it prudent I update my CV, and begin looking for a new day job) are likely to put me behind a little in coming weeks so I’m moving at least one of those episodes up a little. Today we travel to London’s Haymarket Theatre - in 1749 a hotbed of middle class discontent towards the ruling class. The air is abuzz with anticipation for the incredible Bottle Conjuror - a musician, mentalist and contortionist like no other. With a full house what could go wrong? The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. At the current pledge level I post a bonus episode a month, and will add more extras as the channel grows. Please leave a like and review. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

This week my (New Zealand) Government announced New Zealand schools would be teaching New Zealand History to all children. This IS actually quite an accomplishment - a lot of younger kids get little to no history at all, and those who take the subject as an elective option often don’t even touch on our own country. It only seems fitting to do a New Zealand Tale this week. What can one say about New Zealand and the act of Pseudocide - faking one’s own death to start anew elsewhere? Quite a bit it turns out… The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. I’m currently dropping a bonus tale a month, and will increase to one an episode when we meet our first target. Please leave us a Like and Review. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Happy International Woman’s Day! This week I’m looking at one lesser known badass warrior Queen - Njinga, Queen (then later King) of Ndongo. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please leave us a like and review. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

From November 1896 through 1897, the skies over America - if Tales are to be believed - were full of magnificent flying machines. Some possibly from another planet, most were believed by the populace to be the work of pioneering geniuses - such as a mysterious 47 year old dentist from California. What was really behind this spate of sightings? The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please leave us a like and review. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

Content Warning: This week’s Tale deals with several ugly topics including lynching, false arrests death by consumption, suicide and racism in general. Discretion advised. Set in Detroit Michigan in and around 1925 today we try to explain the awful reasons a dedicated family doctor fell foul of a ‘waterworks improvement association’ for wanting to move into a ‘nice neighbourhood’. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please leave us a like and review. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

This is part two of a two part series on England’s Pendle Witch trials of 1612. Last episode we looked at the lead in to the witch hunts in England and Scotland- Today we look at the Demdikes and the Chattoxes. I’ve split this episode into two parts as it was running closer to an hour than the usual 20 minutes in pre production. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please leave us a like and review. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

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 the usual 20 minutes in pre production. Part two will be out next week. The blog post of the episode is here. Support the show on Patreon for just $2 a month and get access to exclusive content. Please leave us a like and review. The best way you can help support the show is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

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 support the show on Patreon, and get access to exclusive content. Click for more, Patreon Content. Please leave a like and review if you enjoyed it. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone else. Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. For more information on Simone click here.

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 pod-catcher of choice. If you enjoyed this episode, share us with someone you know will like it too. Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. Main texts: Mostly newspaper articles, and an online back catalogue of Jet Magazine articles - though I did use Flukey Stokes biography Flukey Stokes: Drugs, Gangs and Police Corruption in Chicago For more information on Simone click here.