Tales of History and Imagination

When Prophesies Fail

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.
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The Monstrous Life of Zana of Abkhazia

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 headAnd came around a dozen news articles from 2015 with much the same text one to the next…  
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Minisode: The Bagradas Dragon

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... 
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Hereward the Wake: Two - The Conqueror

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.)
 
 
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Hereward the Wake: One - The Confessor

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. 
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What Happened to Richard Cox?

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 usefulThis 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 UniversityJim 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…
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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The Poe Toaster

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’
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The Mysterious Mister ZedZed

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 AllfreyThis Time Magazine ArticleThis Library of Congress article on J.P. HollandThis 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. 
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. 
Though I made a quick arrangement of ‘My Grandfather’s Clock’ (Henry Clay Work) this episode. 
 
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Animals

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 NavigatorFortean 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 WarsThis excellent blog post on Porphyrius.Stories to Wash Hands by, from Nate Di Meo’s The Memory PalaceTopsy the Elephant was a Victim of her Captors by Kat Eschner And This Smithsonian write up on Cher Ami
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Minisode: The Namamugi Incident

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. 
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Minisode: Frau Troffea’s Dance With The Devil

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. 
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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.
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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) )
 
 
 
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The Murder of William Desmond Taylor

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.
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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.
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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.)
 
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Shorts: What Ended Mabel Normand’s Career?

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. 
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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) 
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The Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle Incident

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.
 
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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.)
 
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Olive Thomas: The Poisoned Chalice

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.
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Railway War!

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.
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The Diaspora

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.
 
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Mussolini’s Hat - How the Mob Came to America

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.
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The Black Hand

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.
 
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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 
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Roxelana

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.    
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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.) 
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The Island

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. 

The Dog Days’ King

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)
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The Frost Fair

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. 
 

Madame Fiocca - Part Two

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. 

Madame Fiocca - Part One

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. 

A Few Short Tales on Trans Awareness Week 2022

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 LibraryThis Vice ArticleAdrienne Mayor’s The Poison KingI 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. 
 
 

The Revenge of The Tally Sticks

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 1834A British Library article on Tally SticksProf Richard Murphy’s blog post on Charles II’s questionable financial behaviour in 1672, at Tax Research UKAnd 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. 
 

Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?

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. 

The Wall Street Coup Part Two

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. 

The Wall Street Coup, Part One

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. 
 

Oliver (the Man in the Box)…

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. 
 

The Sin-Eater, Wizard of Mauritius & Mr Good Day - Three Work Tales

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. 
 

The Many Deaths of Glenn Miller

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. 

The Ghost & The Darkness

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.
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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. 

The Infernal Machine

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. 
 

Minisode: Spencer Percival

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.
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Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
For more information on Simone click here. 

Minisode: The Carrington Event

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.
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Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
For more information on Simone click here. 
 

The Old Man of The Mountain

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.
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Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
For more information on Simone click here. 
 

The Mongols are Coming!

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.  
 
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Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
For more information on Simone click here. 
 

The Cult of Hassan-i Sabbah

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. 
 

The Bottle Conjuror

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. 
 

Beyond the Archway

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.
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Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
For more information on Simone click here. 
 
 

Njinga of Ndongo

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.
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Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
For more information on Simone click here. 

The Phantom Airships

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.
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Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
For more information on Simone click here. 

Doctor Sweet’s Defence

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.
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Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.For more information on Simone click here. 
 
 

The Pendle Witches (Part Two)

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.
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Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
 
For more information on Simone click here. 

The Pendle Witches (Part One)

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.
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Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
 
For more information on Simone click here. 
 
 

The Miser of Marcham Park

Hi all, Happy Holidays, however you choose to celebrate - or commiserate this year. The following episode is the last Tale of the year (I’ll be back round 19th January 2022)
I wanted to close out the year by dissecting a figure who entered Xmas lore back in 1843 - Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge - one of his many ‘Mean men’. Was there a real life equivalent who inspired Dickens’ fertile imagination? Hit the button and find out.
 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, and get access to exclusive content, over at Patreon. There are a handful of episodes there now - in 2022 I’m committing to drop a bonus episode for every main episode released (22 planned for next year). Come on over and join the team!  
Please leave a like and review if your pod catcher allows. More importantly, if you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone else. Creative works grow best by word of mouth. It’ll also give you someone to chat about my episodes with. 
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 Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. I normally compose on the fly, though have borrowed God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (anon - first appeared among recusant Catholic families in England in the 1650s)
And Sleigh Ride (Leroy Anderson & Mitchell Parish - FYI The Andrews Sisters version may be canon, but The Ronettes cover is where it’s at).
For more information on Simone hit the link. 
 

The Campden Wonder - The ‘Murder’ of William Harrison

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
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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.
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Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
For more information on Simone click here. 
 
 

Spring Heeled Jack - The Terror of London

Spring Heeled Jack would enter the public consciousness of Londoners at the tail end of 1837, as reports emerged of numerous attacks on lone women in the city. Tall, demonic, with glowing red eyes and an almost supernatural ability to scale tall objects - some wondered if the devil had come to London. 
Over time his legend spread and took on a surprising life of his own. 
This week’s Patreon only episode is on The Carrington Event. 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.
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 Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
Main texts: Sorry it’s been so long since I wrote this that I’ve lost track, Mike Dash’s work on Spring Heeled Jack would have to be the main source - all subsequent articles owing much to his scholarship.
For more information on Simone click here. 
 

The Max Headroom Incident

On 9:14 pm, 22nd November 1987, Chicago’s WGN TV was ‘zipped’ by a mysterious attacker - a figure wearing a rubber Max Headroom mask. The attacker would strike again, upsetting Whovians in the Windy City. 
In this short Tale we discuss the Max Headroom Incident.
This week’s Patreon only episode is on The Hammersmith Ghost. Support the show for just $2 US a month, and get access to exclusive content.  
The blog post of the episode is here.
Check out the blog at historyandimagination.com
Please leave me a like or review on your pod-catcher of choice. If you enjoyed this episode, share us with someone who’ll like it too. Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.
Tales is on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
 Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
For more information on Simone click here. 
 

Willie The Wimp (and His Cadillac Coffin)

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. 
 

eden ahbez - Nature Boy

There was a boy, a very strange, enchanted boy - both his prototypical hippie lifestyle, long before the summer of love - and the ethereal song he left us in 1947 have fascinated me endlessly since first reading his Tale. Today, we discuss eden ahbez, and how the song Nature Boy came to be. 
Patreon episodes will start next episode, to help me make the show please show some love here!
 
Read the blog post of this episode here.
Please leave a like. Follow the show. Share the channel – it helps Tales grow. I post a new episode every fortnight, Wednesday night New Zealand time.
Follow Tales of History and Imagination on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. I also write a weekly Wordpress Blog.
Support the show on Patreon for exclusive, extra content. 
 
Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. I normally write the music - this week I’m just vamping over a couple of phrases taken from ahbez’ song Nature Boy. Hear Nat King Cole’s version here! 
 
Main texts: I don’t know… I think I got this story from a Vanity Fair article. Of course I consulted the LA Times, as I often do first with anything based in Los Angeles. Andrew Hickey’s podcast ‘A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs’ tuned me in to the Petrillo strikes. I cannot recommend Andrew’s show too highly, go check it out.
 
About the Author: Simone Whitlow is an academic, competitive quizzer, songwriter and musician. 
Transgender, she uses she/her pronouns.

Nellie Bly (Re-Upload)

In an age where female reporters were few and far between, and wrote on little more than fashion and gardening - Nellie Bly got locked up in a ‘madhouse’ to expose the horrors of such an institution. In this 10 minute episode Simone discusses her 10 days in a madhouse. 
Check back in in a week’s time for a Patreon bonus episode - am playing catch up with those this week. 
 
You can read the blog post of the episode here. 
 
Please leave a like. Follow the show. Share the channel – it helps Tales grow. I post a new episode every fortnight, Wednesday night New Zealand time.
 
Follow Tales of History and Imagination on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and weekly Wordpress Blog.
Support the show on Patreon for exclusive, extra content. 
 
 
 
Music, writing, narration, mixing usually all yours truly. This episode uses an arrangement of Steven Foster’s Beautiful Dreamer under the Asylum scene, played by me.
Main texts: Of course Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Madhouse. and articles on The Womans’ History Museum  And Encyclopedia Britannica 
 
About the Author: Simone Whitlow is an academic, competitive quizzer, songwriter and musician. She is currently on a multi-year mission infiltrating a giant corporation, probably no less insane than Blackwood Island Asylum. 
Transgender, she uses she/her pronouns.     

Jack Parsons - Babalon‘s Rocketeer (Part Two)

I may as well leave the content warning up from last fortnight... I don’t  know, if you’re prudish I mention sex magick several times in this Tale – though hardly go into detail.. When John Whiteside Parsons – Jack to his friends – died suddenly in an explosion, one may have expected platitudes to the man. As a pioneering rocket scientist, the world -  and the future would owe much to his innovations. Instead, all anyone could talk about was the gossip about his lifestyle – and membership to a cult which worshipped a man known as ‘The Great Beast'.
This is part two of the two parter.
You can read the prelude here. Part one here. This episode here.
I also loaded Franklin D Roosevelt’s date which will live in infamy speech, and Aleister Crowley’s Hymn to Pan onto a blog post here.
 
 
Please leave a like. Follow the show. Share the channel – it helps Tales grow. I post a new episode every fortnight, Wednesday night New Zealand time.
My Patreon, soon to be active can be found here
You can follow Tales of History and Imagination on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. I also write a weekly Wordpress Blog.
 
 
Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly.
Main texts Strange Angel by George Pendle, Sex and Rockets, the Occult World of Jack Parsons by John Carter and Robert Anton Wilson. I watched several YouTube videos on Crowley's Gnostic Mass (Liber XV) – which was so far from what I expected it to be... referred to a couple of LA Times articles (Paywalled) about Clifford Clinton, his Clifton's Cafes, Frank Lloyd, and the LA Mafia in the 1920s and 30s, over a year ago. The info on Pearl Harbour was sealed into my brain from high school.
 
About the Author: Simone Whitlow is an academic, competitive quizzer, songwriter and musician. Meh, I’ve got no personal anecdote for this one... 
Transgender, she uses she/her pronouns.

Jack Parsons - Babalon‘s Rocketeer (Part One)

Content warning! I discuss a violent death in this Tale, and allude to another.
When John Whiteside Parsons – Jack to his friends – died suddenly in an explosion, one may have expected platitudes to the man. As a pioneering rocket scientist, the world -  and the future would owe much to his innovations. Instead, all anyone could talk about was the gossip about his lifestyle – and membership to a cult which worshipped a man known as ‘The Great Beast'
Over the next two episodes, we're talking about the mad life of Jack Parsons – Rocketeer, Occultist...... Spy?
You can read the episode here.I also mention the Prelude written in the blog, here. And, of course Tipu's Tiger.
 
Please leave me like, give us a follow. Share the channel – it helps Tales grow. I post a new episode every fortnight, Wednesday night New Zealand time.
My Patreon, soon to be active can be found here
You can follow Tales of History and Imagination on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. I also write a weekly Wordpress Blog.
 
Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. Sound FX a single explosion, marked ‘Sound 1000’.
 
I read Strange Angel by George Pendle, Sex and Rockets, the Occult World of Jack Parsons by John Carter and Robert Anton Wilson, watched several YouTube videos on Crowley's Gnostic Mass (Liber XV) – which was so far from what I expected it to be... referred to a couple of LA Times articles (Paywalled) about Clifford Clinton, his Clifton's Cafes, Frank L. Shaw, and the LA Mafia in the 1920s and 30s, over a year ago....that which I ramble through in the middle of the episode (and write about in the prologue) is from my notes on those articles, in my big red book of ideas.
I also stole a single musical phrase from Prokofiev's Violin concerto no.2 in music on part 2. Thanks Spotify for having a version to learn the piece from.
 
About the Author: Simone Whitlow is an academic, competitive quizzer, songwriter and musician. She has never joined a sex cult.... well, not before this episode was published anyway...
Transgender, she uses she/her pronouns.   

Grace O‘Malley

This episode we attend a meeting at Greenwich palace, the date, some time in September 1593. The ‘Fairy Queen’ of England, Elizabeth I, awaits the arrival of one Grace O’Malley – the pirate Queen of Connaught. The two rulers had been at loggerheads for decades and in some ways they seemed wildly different characters – one a genteel Law-lord in charge of a nation.... the other a swashbuckling Warlord from beyond the Pail. Were they all that different? The philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us...“Piracy and war gave place to trade, politics and letters; the war-lord to the law-lord; the privilege was kept, whilst the means of obtaining it were changed”
Today, we discuss Grace O’Malley, the Pirate Queen of Connaught.
Read the episode here.
Please leave a like, give us a follow. Share the channel – it will help Tales grow. I post a new episode every fortnight, Wednesday night New Zealand time.
My Patreon, soon to be active can be found here (Launching late May)
Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. I also write a weekly Wordpress Blog.
Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. No Foley sounds this week.
I'm planning to share bibliographies far more from now on, why not right? In this case I wrote this episode for the first run at a podcast in 2019 using several news articles (many now paywalled)  and Anne Chambers 'Grace O'Malley, the biography of Ireland's Pirate Queen'
 
About the Author: Simone Whitlow is an academic, competitive quizzer, songwriter, history blogger and musician. Though brought up in New Zealand, Simone has some Irish ancestry on her mother's side.
Transgender, she uses she/her pronouns.   

Mithridates- The Poison King

 This week's Tale takes place in 63 BC. The setting, the kingdom of Pontus – a once powerful Black Sea empire – now a region of Eastern Turkey. Mithridates VI Eupator paces, knowing his time is up. Like Hannibal, he spent decades at war with Rome – and like Hannibal he would meet his end like a caged lion. A renowned freedom fighter, he was also a genocidal despot. A paranoid megalomaniac, raised to believe a series of comets and other omens marked him out as a messiah. Saviour of the East. King of Kings. In short, Mithridates was a complex guy
Today, we discuss the Poison King of Pontus.
You can read the episode here.Please leave a like, give us a follow. Share the channel – it will help Tales grow. I post a new episode every fortnight, Wednesday night New Zealand time.
Tales of History and Imagination is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest. I also write a weekly Wordpress Blog.
Music, writing, narration, mixing all yours truly. Sound FX were from several free sites downloaded to laptop in 2019. The Mithridates poem is a section from A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad.
I normally save bibliographies for the Patreon, but there is only one source for 95% of this Tale – The Poison King by Adrienne Mayor.
About the Author: Simone Whitlow is an academic, competitive quizzer, songwriter and musician. Her favourite part of A Shropshire Lad is the bit which starts “Into my heart an air that kills, From yon far country blows.” Hell, we all have ‘happy highways where we went, and cannot come again' right?
Transgender, she uses she/her pronouns.   

Admin: It’s About to Get Bumpy…

Hi all just dropping an admin note between old episodes. Basically, I recorded the first two seasons on a Blue Yeti microphone straight into an old laptop. I then mixed those episodes without headphones…Some of them sound pretty rough. In January 2022 I upgraded my mic, and bought a podcasting console in April 2022. Since then I’ve re-recorded several older episodes. Basically everything from The Pendle Witches onwards is on the new gear, and everything before The Pendle Witches is in the process of being replaced. Update, November 2023: Mithridates, Grace O’Malley, the Jack Parsons two parter, eden ahbez, The Mex Headroom Incident, Spring Heeled Jack, The Campden Wonder and The Miser of Marcham Park are the only episodes in need of re-doing. To date I’ve redone 
Martial Bourdin
Hannibal in Bithynia
Tipu’s Tiger
Eilean Mor
The Beast of Gevaudan
Buried Alive!
Nellie Bly
Willie The Wimp (and His Cadillac Coffin)

Buried Alive! (Re-Upload)

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

This is a re-upload of the original Episode 5, The Beast of Gevaudan. It’s the same script as in 2019, but recorded with much better gear. I’ll be re-uploading the first 25 or so throughout 2022 and 2023
Today’s tale is set in the former province of Gevaudan in South-Central France. The years between 1764 and 1767, following the bloody, and costly Seven Years War – a Proto World War if ever there was one – which had left deep scars in the psyche of many a European nation – France included- and left many a monarch broke in its’ wake.
An isolated, rugged, rural spot – The terrain rough and mountainous – it is far too rocky to grow much by way of crops. The locals eke out a living in the hills, tending to livestock. From youth, the locals worked alone, out in the elements – constantly on the lookout for wild predators on the lookout for a free meal. Gevaudan is also surrounded by a vast forest; a dangerous and lawless place full of wolves, lurking outlaws, footpads and highwayman. It really is the kind of place you could imagine in the most vicious Grimm Brothers tales.
It’s against this backdrop that La Bete du Gevaudan - the beast of Gevaudan - came roaring into the consciousness of the French.
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 
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. 
 
Visit Simone’s 
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Eilean Mor (Re-upload)

This is a re-upload of the original Episode 4, Eilean Mor. It’s the same script as in 2019, but recorded with much better gear. I’ll be re-uploading the first 25 or so throughout 2022 and 2023
The Flannan Isles, sometimes referred to as the 7 Hunters, are a tiny group of islands in the Outer Hebrides – a string of islands in the North of Scotland. Uninhabited, hilly and rocky, covered only by grass … people kept well clear of these, allegedly haunted isles. In 1899 a lighthouse was build on the island. Just what happened to the three lighthouse keepers?
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 
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. 
 
Visit Simone’s 
| About Me | Twitter | 
 
 

Tipu’s Tiger (Re-upload)

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

Hannibal in Bithynia (Re-upload)

 
This is a re-upload of the original Episode 2, Hannibal in Bithynia. It’s the same script as in 2019, but recorded with much better gear. I’ll be re-uploading the first 25 or so throughout 2022 and 2023Today’s we’re Asiatic town of Libyssa, in Bithynia – modern day Turkey. The date, some time around 182 BCE. Hannibal Barca, one of the greatest Generals to ever live, is pacing his enclosure like a caged Barbary Lion. His life, from the age of nine had lead to this point – ever since his father made him take an oath he would “Never be a friend of Rome.” 
How did it all come to this for the Carthaginian strongman?
The blog post of the episode is here. Sources include: Hannibal Barca by ‘Captivating History’ A History of Rome by Max Cary and H.H. Scullard. 
 
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 
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. 
 
 
 
Visit Simone’s 
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Martial Bourdin (Re-upload)

This is a re-upload of the original Episode 1, Martial Bourdin. It’s the same script as in 2019, but recorded with much better gear. I’ll be re-uploading the first 25 or so throughout 2022 and 2023.
“At 4:45pm precisely, GMT, 15th February 1894, the grounds of Greenwich Park, London – home of the Royal Observatory, and a clock we’ll discuss later – are shaken by a resounding boom. Staff at the observatory recalled a “sharp and clear detonation, followed by a noise like a shell going through the air”. Peering through windows in trepidation, they attempted to work out what just happened. A park warden and a group of students ran towards the epicenter of the blast – where a solitary young man lay dying. The young man, who died not long after in a local hospital, was identified as 26 year old Frenchman Martial Bourdin.”
Just who was this young man, and what was his target that cold winter day?Sources? Sorry all, I started off badly by not collating and sharing them. It’s something I get better at doing over time. This was collated together from several online articles, and a project management textbook (for the section on Frederick Winslow Taylor.) This tale first reached me via an introduction to the Wordsworth edition of The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad. 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 |