Travels Through Time

After a short break at TTT, enter the world’s largest flying machine. ‘R101’ was one of the most ambitious creations of the airship era. Plans for it began about a century ago in the 1920s. The vision of engineers and politicians was that the 1930s were to mark the start of a new epoch in air travel. R101 was to lead the way. Huge airships were going to glide through the imperial skies, binding together the distant outposts of the British Empire. In 1930 R101’s story reached its tragic climax when, seven hours into a flight from its base in Bedfordshire, it crashed to the north of Paris. Of the fifty or so on board, only a handful survived the hydrogen fireball. R101’s story, and the history of the era that created it, are the subject of a new book by the New York Time bestselling author S.C. ‘Sam’ Gwynne. His Majesty’s Airship tells the story of ‘the life and death of the world’s largest flying machine’. In this episode Sam takes Peter back to see R101 as the moment of disaster nears. To be in with winning one of two hardback copies of His Majesty’s Airship, just head to the Unseen Histories Instagram page and follow/like this post. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. To read an extract and see images from His Majesty’s Airship, visit unseenhistories.com Show notes Scene One: 30 June 1930. Royal Airship Works, Cardington. R101 is beset with problems. Scene Two: 4 October 1930. The departure of R101 from Cardington, Bedfordshire. Scene Three: 5 October 1930. Near Beauvais, France. The crash, and aftermath. Memento: R101’s Control Car People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: S.C. Gwynne Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1930 fits on our Timeline

Join Peter Moore and Sarah Bakewell for a little walking tour of Fleet Street in London. Instead of three scenes, in this episode they stop off at three locations, as Peter tells Sarah about three of the characters who appear in his new book: the printer William Strahan, the writer Samuel Johnson and the politician John Wilkes. Peter Moore is a Sunday Times bestselling historian. His new book is Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Britain and the American Dream. Sarah Bakewell is a prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author, most recently of the history of humanism: Humanly Possible. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Location One: The Old Cheshire Cheese (William Strahan) Location Two: 17 Gough Square (Dr Johnson's House) Location Three: Near John Wilkes's Statue on Fetter Lane People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Asking questions: Sarah Bakewell Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_

In 1520 the artist Albrecht Dürer was on the run from the Plague and on the look-out for distraction when he heard that a huge whale had been beached on the coast of Zeeland. So he set off to see the astonishing creature for himself. In this beautifully-evoked episode the award-winning writing Philip Hoare takes us back to those consequential days in 1520. We catch sight of Dürer, the great master of the Northern Renaissance, as he searches for the whale. This, he realises, is his chance to make his greatest ever print. Philip Hoare is the author of nine works of non-fiction, including biographies of Stephen Tennant and Noël Coward, and the studies, Wilde's Last Stand and England's Lost Eden.  Spike Island was chosen by W.G. Sebald as his book of the year for 2001.  In 2009, Leviathan or, The Whale won the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. It was followed in 2013 by The Sea Inside, and in 2017 by RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR.  His new book, Albert & the Whale led the New York Times to call the author a 'forceful weather system' of his own. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton, and co-curator, with Angela Cockayne, of the digital projects http://www.mobydickbigread.com/ and https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/ As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: Nuremberg, home of Albrecht Dürer, at the height of its power as an imperial city, of art and technology. Scene Two: The Low Countries. Driven out of Nuremberg by the plague and a city in lockdown, Dürer escapes to the seaside. Scene Three: Halfway through his year away, Dürer hears a whale has been stranded in Zeeland.  This is his chance to make his greatest print, a follow up to his hit woodcut of a rhinoceros.  What follows next is near disaster, a mortal act.  It changes his life. Memento: Memento: A lock of Dürer’s hair (which Hoare would use to regenerate him and then get him to paint his portrait) People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Philip Hoare Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Colorgraph Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1520 fits on our Timeline

It's time to revisit our archives. In this episode one of the world’s great historical novelists takes us back to one of the most dramatic and consequential moments in European history. Bernard Cornwell is our guide to the Battle of Waterloo. Waterloo. That single word is enough to conjure up images of Napoleon with his great bicorn hat and the daring emperor’s nemesis, the Duke of Wellington. Over the course of twelve or so hours on a Sunday at the start of summer, these two commanders met on a battle in modern-day Belgium, to settle the future of Europe. For a battle so vast is size and significance, it still has some elusive elements. Historians cannot agree on when it started. The movement of the troops is still subject to debate. Wellington, who might have been best qualified to answer these riddles, preferred not to speak of Waterloo. His famously laconic verdict was simply that it was ‘the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life.’ Few people are as qualified to analyse this tangled history as Bernard Cornwall. For forty years he has been writing about this period of history through his ‘Sharpe’ series of books. As Cornwall publishes his first new Sharpe novel for fifteen years, we take the opportunity to ask him about the battle that was central to all. Over a brilliantly analytical hour, he walks us through the battlefield, in three telling scenes. Show Notes Scene One: Sunday June 18th, 11.10 am.  Napoleon orders his grand battery to start firing Scene Two: Sunday June 18th, 8.00 pm. Napoleon sends the Imperial Guard to save the battle. Scene Three: Sunday June 18th, 10.00 pm.  Wellington weeps over the casualties. Memento: A heavy cavalry sword, carried in an attack at Waterloo People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Bernard Cornwell Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Colorgraph Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1815 fits on our Timeline

Our guest today is one of the greatest of Britons. Lady Hale was, until her retirement three years ago, the President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom – the most senior judge in the country. Peter sat down with Lady Hale at her London home for a conversation about her life, her love of history and memoir Spider Woman. After this she took him back to 1925, a pivotal year for the law and women’s rights. For women, the 1920s were a progressive time. Figures like Eleanor Rathbone and Viscountess Rhonda led movements such as the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship and the Six Point Group. In 1925 three particularly important pieces of legislation passed through Parliament. Here she tells us about each of them. Lady Hale is the author of Spider Woman. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: Administration of Estates Act 1925 (Royal Assent 9 April 1925) Scene Two: Guardianship of Infants Act 1925 (Royal Assent 31 July 1925) Scene Three: Widows, Orphans and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act (Royal Assent 7 August 1925) Memento: Her mother’s tennis racquet. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Lady Hale Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1925 fits on our Timeline

In this special live episode, recorded at the Buckingham Literary Festival last weekend, the award-winning writer Flora Fraser takes us to one of the most remote places in the British Isles to witness the dramatic story of how her namesake Flora Macdonald helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape after his failed attempt to take the throne from George II. Their adventure is one of the most romantic and romanticised episodes in our history, sighed over and depicted by succeeding generations seduced by Flora’s bravery and charm. Flora Fraser is the author of several acclaimed works of history including Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton; Venus of Empire, The Life of Pauline Bonaparte, and The Washingtons. Her book Pretty Young Rebel, The Life of Flora MacDonald is out now in hardback. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: June 1746. The Prince comes to Flora at midnight in South Uist and asks for help.  Scene Two: September 1746. Flora is a captive on a Royal Navy warship in Leith harbour and a celebrity. Scene Three: December 1746. The ship bringing Flora South from Leith reaches London. Memento: The handsomely bound Bible in two volumes that Flora carried down to London, where she was kept a state prisoner into the following year. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Flora Fraser Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1746 fits on our Timeline

In this episode the cultural historian Mike Jay takes Peter back to the high Victorian Age to see how a pioneering group of scholars and artists experimented with mind altering drugs. Jay labels these characters 'psychonauts'. These were daring, romantic figures like Sigmund Freud who championed cocaine as a stimulant, and William James whose experiments with nitrous oxide brought new insights into human consciousness. Others at this time used drugs more informally. One such person was Robert Louis Stevenson. Suffering from poor health in the mid-1880s he took advantage of the powerful drugs that were easily accessible. A result of this, Jay explains, is Dr Jeykill and Mr Hyde, one of the great short stories in English literature. Mike Jay is the author of Psychnauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: January 1885, Vienna - Sigmund Freud publishes his self-experiments with cocaine. Scene Two: March 31st 1885, Cambridge, Mass - William James in his study, corresponding with Benjamin Blood and Edmund Gurney about nitrous oxide. Scene Three: September 1885, Bournemouth - RL Stevenson writes Jekyll & Hyde in three days. Memento: A branded Merck vial of cocaine  People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Mike Jay Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1885 fits on our Timeline

In this lively episode of Travels Through Time the historian Dr David Veevers takes us to the heart of the seventeenth century to visit three key locations in which the British Empire was being formed, challenged and resisted.  First, we head to the Deccan Plateau of the Indian Subcontinent to witness a dramatic stand off between the Mughal and Maratha Empires. It would set off a series of events which would eventually lead to the English East India Company acquiring a colony of its own in the region. Next, we cross continents and oceans to meet the Indigenous Kalinago of the Eastern Caribbean as they sign a treaty with the English and French. And finally, David takes us to the west coast of Africa where the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa is launched – an operation that would soon gain a monopoly over the trade in enslaved people in West Africa. These stories represent just a select few from David’s brilliant new book The Great Defiance: How the World Took On the British Empire. It’s a work of history that challenges our idea of the empire as one in which the British came, saw and conquered. Dr David Veevers is an award-winning historian and Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Bangor, and was formerly a Leverhulme Fellow in the School of History at Queen Mary, University of London.  Show Notes Scene One: January, 1660, Deccan. The Mughal Empire invade the emerging Maratha Empire, setting off a series of events that lead to the sack of Surat and the quest of the English East India Company to acquire a colony of its own in India. Scene Two: March, 1660, Guadeloupe. An Anglo-French delegation conclude a treaty with the Indigenous Kalinago of the Eastern Caribbean to partition the region between them. Scene Three: December, 1660, London and West Africa. The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa is launched, eventually gaining a monopoly over the trade in enslaved people in West Africa. Momemto: A silver cup that the British allege is stolen by Powhatan people. People/Social   Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: David Veevers Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1660 fits on our Timeline

This week we head to the turbulent world of sixteenth century France to meet three fascinating queens whose lives were inextricably linked – Catherine de' Medici, Elisabeth de Valois and Mary Queen of Scots. They are the subject of our guest today, Leah Redmond Chang's, new book, Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power. 'The royal body exists to be looked at,' Hilary Mantel wrote in her essay "Royal Bodies". For a royal woman especially, this has meant that the most intimate parts of her biology have been closely observed and occasionally used to alter the course of her country's history. Whether she had started menstruating, was fertile, was able to sexually satisfy her husband or provide him with a son and heir could all be details on which massive political decisions were based. As Leah Redmond Chang shows in her wonderful new book, these details of women's lives aren't a sideshow to the main event but, in fact, central to the action. In this episode we visit 1559 to witness the unexpected and violent death of Henry II of France in a jousting competition. It was a tragic accident that would forever change the lives of his wife, Catherine de' Medici, his daughter, Elisabeth de Valois and his daughter-in-law Mary Queen of Scots. Show notes Scene One: June 30-July 10, 1559, Paris. The tragic and violent death of Henry II of France in a jousting accident after the wedding of his daughter, Elisabeth de Valois. Scene Two: Mid-July 1559, the Louvre. The Spanish Duke of Alba visits the mourning chambers of Catherine de’ Medici. Scene Three: Late November, 1559, Châtelleraut. The Departure of Catherine’s daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, for Spain. Momento: Henry II's faulty jousting helmet, and/or the first letter Catherine de' Medici sent to her daughter as she was on her journey to Spain to meet her husband.  People/Social   Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Leah Redmond Chang Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1559 fits on our Timeline

The Renaissance was stirred into life by many figures of genius. In this episode Peter meets up with the art historian, Andrew Spira, to talk about three of the great masters in one of the most captivating of years. In different ways Botticelli, Perugino and Dürer were finding new stories to tell in their paintings. Spira evaluates all of this for us and he detects the emergence of something else that would be of central importance in the emerging Western society. This was a revolutionary new conception: 'the self'. Andrew Spira is the author of The Invention of the Self: Personal Identity in the Age of Art, among other works. He is also one of the esteemed tour directors at Ace Culutral Tours. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: Sandro Botticelli's Mystic Nativity Scene Two: Pietro Perugino's Resurrection Scene Three: Albrecht Dürer's Self-portrait Memento: A Dürer print People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Andrew Spira Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1500 fits on our Timeline

For this week's episode Peter headed in to Penguin's offices in London to meet Serhii Plokhy and talk to him about his new book, The Russo-Ukrainian War. They discussed how a culture of secrecy continues to define Russian society as it did before with the Soviets. They looked at the progress of the war and Putin's failed attempt to found a 'Eurasian Union'. Following this Serhii revisits the dramatic events of 1991, when he watched on as the Soviet Union collapsed in the most unexpected of ways. Serhii Plokhy has been described as 'The world's foremost historian of Ukraine' by the Financial Times. His new book, The Russo-Ukrainian War, is available in hardback now. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: August 1991. Moscow during the attempted coup Scene Two: Late August. Edmonton, Canada. The Canadian prime minister pledges to recognize Ukrainian independence Scene Three: 25 December. Mikhail Gorbachev's Resignation Address Memento: Serhii Plokhy's aeroplane ticket from 1991 People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Serhii Plokhy Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1991 fits on our Timeline

It's time to delve into our archive. In this brilliantly descriptive and entertaining episode, the award-winning writer and satirist Craig Brown takes us on a cultural tour of 1963. We discuss the Great Train Robbery, the Beatles meteoric rise to fame and the assassination of JFK. For much, much more about all this and to be the first to see the amazing new colourised photograph of the Beatles in Washington DC at their first US concert – head to our website. Show Notes: Scene One: August 1963, lingering with the robbers in their hide-out at Leatherslade Farm. Scene Two: Second half of 1963, Jane Asher's family home, Wimpole Street, to see/be Paul McCartney, living with the Ashers, at the time of the first flush of the Beatles’ success. Scene Three: November 23 1963. In the Texas School Book depository with Lee Harvey Oswald as he shoots President Kennedy. Memento: Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics for ‘Yesterday’ People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Interview: Artemis Irvine Guest: Craig Brown Producer: Maria Nolan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Podcast Partner: ColorGraph Craig Brown’s book One, Two, Three Four: The Beatles in Time is available now from 4th Estate books.

In this episode of Travels Through Time the classicist Honor Cargill-Martin takes Artemis on a tour of the debauched and dangerous world of Roman politics. We meet Messalina, one of the Rome's most notorious women, and follow her through the events of 48 AD that would lead to her eventual downfall and execution. For over two thousand years Messalina has been characterised as the scheming and sexually rapacious wife of Emperor Claudius. In one famous story she attends a brothel to take part in a twenty four hour sex competition. But now, in her wonderful new biography, Messalina: A Story of Empire, Slander and Adultery, Honor Cargill-Martin challenges this version of the empress's life. In particular, Honor seeks to rescue Messalina's reputation from some of the more egregiously sexist stereotypes that powerful women throughout history have often borne the brunt of. As Honor shows us in this episode, Messalina certainly wasn't a saint, but she was a serious political operator who had survived and thrived in the volatile world of the first century Roman Empire.  For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes   Scene One: Autumn 48 AD, Imperial Palace, Palatine Hill. The emperor Claudius is out of Rome. Messalina, the handsome Gaius Silius, and their friends are partying in celebration of the wine harvest. This, her enemies will argue, is actually a bigamous wedding party. Scene Two: A few days later in autumn 48 AD, From the Via Ostiensis to the Praetorian Camp. Messalina stands accused of adultery, bigamy, and treason. She tries to beg Claudius to spare her life but is blocked. The freedman Narcissus shows Claudius evidence of her adulteries before taking him to the Praetorian Camp where he executes a string of her alleged lovers. Scene Three: New Years Day 49 AD, Claudius marries Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Nero. Lucius Silanus – Messalina’s daughter’s fiancé, now accused of incest to clear the way for her to marry Nero – commits suicide as the morning of the wedding dawns. Memento: Nero's golden snakeskin bracelet.    People/Social   Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Honor Cargill-Martin Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 48 AD fits on our Timeline

Today Tom Whipple, science editor of The Times, takes us back to a critical moment at the beginning of World War Two. Just a month after replacing Neville Chamberlain as prime minister, Winston Churchill learned that the Nazis were using beams to direct their bombers towards targets in Britain’s industrial heartlands. The science behind these beams was so pioneering that it was difficult to believe that it was true. But, as Churchill learned at a dramatic meeting in Whitehall in June 1940, the beams were scientifically plausible. The man who told him this was an extraordinary 28-year-old physicist. His name was RV Jones. RV Jones is the central character in Tom Whipple’s enthralling new book. The Battle of the Beams: The Secret Science of Radar That Turned the Tide of WW2 is out this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 21 June 1940. RV Jones attends a meeting at the cabinet room in Whitehall Scene Two: June 1940. With Flight Lieutenant Bufton/Corporal Mackie on a mission to find Jones’s ‘beams’ over Britain Scene Three: 6 November 1940. At the crash site of a Heinkel III bomber at Chesil Beach in Dorset Memento: Vera Cain’s (RV Jones’s wife) diary People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Tom Whipple Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1940 fits on our Timeline

It has been said that the past is another country, but the events we discuss in this episode feel all too familiar. Media interference in elections, Russian influence on Western politics, controversial immigration policy and the technology industry are all as close to the top of the agenda today as there were in 1924. Today Violet is joined on a tour back to 1924 by the celebrated writer Simon Winchester. Simon is one of the great literary figures of his generation. His career as a journalist and an author spans the past half century, from reports on the Troubles in Northern Ireland to pioneering works of creative non-fiction like Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. Born in Britain, in this episode he joins Violet from his home in rural Massachusetts. Simon’s latest book, which has just been published, Knowing What We Know, The Transmission of Knowledge from Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic takes us from ancient Babylon to Chat GPT, analysing many of the subjects that are discussed here. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Also, if you want to have a look - here's the Sandisfield Times! Show notes Scene One: 25 October 1924, the Zinoviev Letter is published in the British press, setting Ramsay MacDonald and the Labour Party up for election disaster. Scene Two: 1924. In New York City, the creation of IBM – International Business Machines. Scene Three: 1924. In Washington, the Asian Exclusion Act passes through Congress, enshrining anti-immigration policy and racism into law. Memento: IBM ‘golf ball’ font attachment for typewriter. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Simon Winchester Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1924 fits on our Timeline

England in the mid sixteenth century was filled with drama and novelty. As conspiracies played out and a new queen sought to established herself on the throne, a glamorous new technology was emerging in the fashionable world. In this fascinating episode, Rebecca Struthers, the author of Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History of Time, takes us back to the high Elizabethan Age to tell us all about the early days of watchmaking. The stories that feature in this episode are covered in much more depth in Rebecca’s acclaimed new book. Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History of Time is published this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 1572. With Mary Queen of Scots in Sheffield Castle. Scene Two: 1572. With Queen Elizabeth I in Whitehall. Scene Three: 24/5 August 1572. Paris. St Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Memento: Queen Elizabeth’s watch. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Rebecca Struthers Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Hodder & Stoughton Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1572 fits on our Timeline

In today’s beautifully described episode the author and journalist Luke Turner takes us back to 1943 to present us with a refreshingly different view of World War 2. The war, Turner reminds us, was a cultural experience as well as a military contest. One feature of this cultural environment has been largely neglected by generations of scholars. This is the unusual degree of freedom some members of the British armed forces had to explore issues of sexuality and gender. The stories that feature in this episode are covered in much more depth in Luke’s fascinating new book. Men at War: Loving, Lusting, Fighting, Remembering 1939-1945 is published this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 3-4 April 1943. RAF Lissett, Bridlington, East Yorkshire. Scene Two: 16 April 1943. Off the coast of North Africa with Wing Commander Ian Gleed of the RAF. Scene Three. November 1943. A couple of hundred miles north of the Allied line with Lieutenant Dan Billany. Memento: The cockpit door from Ian Gleed’s hurricane. People/Social Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Luke Turner Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1943 fits on our Timeline

This week we have an extra Friday episode for you. It’s with the multi-talented artist, historian and musician Dr Amy Jeffs. She takes us back to 1327, a year of high political drama when King Edward II of England was deposed by his wife, Isabella, and his teenage son, Edward III was crowned and began his fifty-year reign. Jeffs spent her university years deep in the Middle Ages, studying palaeography, Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse and Middle Welsh, alongside more traditional art history courses. Her fascination with words and images in manuscripts has led her to create two books, Storyland and Wild which explore enigmatic early Medieval stories and are beautifully illustrated with her own linocut prints, while the audiobook versions feature her songs and compositions. Wild, which is just out in paperback, explores the mysterious, riddling tales in The Exeter Book, a rare tenth century manuscript of old English literature which has been in Exeter Cathedral since 1072. In this episode Jeffs tells Violet more about all of this and together they set off for 1327 to examine the year’s politics through the prism of two compelling manuscripts. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 1327. A disaster in the scriptorium. A group of manuscript makers, including a scribe and a painter, have been working on producing a book containing a series of portraits of English kings from William the Conqueror to Edward II, surmounting a poem that builds up to an exhortation for Edward II to conquer the Scots. Scene Two: A mother’s gift. Sometime between 15-year-old Edward III’s knighting on 31st January and his coronation on 1st Feb 1327, his mother gives him a lavishly illuminated manuscript containing a treatise on kingship. Scene Three. A funeral. Edward III’s father died/was killed at Berkeley Castle, on the 21st September 1327, but his funeral did not take place until 21st October. His body was borne to Gloucester Abbey, not in state, but with a wooden effigy. Memento: Edward II’s crown, as displayed on his effigy. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Dr Amy Jeffs Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1327 fits on our Timeline == Amy’s linocut images can be ordered from https://www.amyjeffshistoria.com Insta: https://www.instagram.com/historia_prints/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2DrP4TiFqjZHAaWeLdQEGB

In the last decades of the fifteenth century, life in England was finally starting to settle down after years of upheaval and conflict during the Wars of the Roses which had riven society since the mid 1450s. Waves of Plague had decimated the population, causing widespread distress but providing unexpected opportunities for those who survived. The cultural and political landscape were ripe for change. This week’s guest, the distinguished historian Nicholas Orme, takes us back to this time. He guides us back to 1480, a year he describes as being ‘on the cusp’. ‘It is not exactly a year of great achievement’, he argues, but in England it was ‘a year of great promise.’ Nicholas Orme is Emeritus Professor of History at Exeter University, he has written more than thirty books. Tudor Children, his latest, takes the reader from birth to adulthood through the themes of work, play, religion and education. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: Westminster. William Caxton's shop, where he is selling books, 80% of them in English, including his printed edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales which helps to develop the 'King's English', based on the Midlands dialect. Scene Two: Oxford. William Waynflete is opening his new grammar school, Magdalen College School, which for the first time is going to teach classical, rather than medieval, Latin and bring England into the Renaissance. Scene Three. Bristol. William Worcester is measuring and describing the streets of the city: the first ever historical survey of an English town.  Memento: Second edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales published by William Caxton. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Nicholas Orme Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1480 fits on our Timeline

This month marks 80 years since the government of Nazi Germany announced the shocking discovery of a series of mass graves in the Katyń Forest in the occupied USSR. Thus began one of the most tangled and disturbing of WW2 stories. Just what had happened? In this episode from our archive, the writer Jane Rogoyska, author of Surviving Katyń, takes us back to the year 1940 to find out. *** In April 1943 the discovery of a series of mass graves in the Katyń Forest near Smolensk in the Soviet Union ignited one of the most explosive rows of the Second World War. The identity of the victims was clear enough. They were the Polish military elite and significant figures – academics, writers, industrials, doctors - from wider Polish society. But who was responsible? The Germans instantly blamed the Soviets. The Soviets retaliated that the accusation was a ‘vile slander’, intended to mask yet another instance of Nazi wickedness. In this episode the writer Jane Rogoyska takes us back to the scene of a sinister and bitterly contested crime: the Katyń Massacre. Jane Rogoyska is the author of Surviving Katyn: Stalin’s Polish Massacre and the Search for Truth   As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: March 1940, Starobelsk camp, Soviet Ukraine. Bronisław Młynarski and his friends find a mysterious message tied to the collar of a stray dog. Scene Two: April 1940, Starobelsk camp. NKVD Commissar Kirshin stands on the steps of the ruined church watching the transports of men depart: ‘You are leaving,’ he says, ‘for a place where I would like to go myself.’ Scene Three: July 1940, Griazovets camp near Vologda in the far north of Russia. The artist Józef Czapski gives an informal lecture about Marcel Proust, delivered entirely from memory, to a group of friends lying on the grass in the sun. Memento: One of the Christmas decorations created by graphic artist Edward Manteuffel while he was a prisoner in Starobelsk camp. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Jane Rogoyska Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Colorgraph Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1940 fits on our Timeline