Travels Through Time

Christmas with the Three Wise Historians (2021)

In this Christmas special of Travels Through Time our three wise presenters Peter, Violet and Artemis get together to remember some of their favourite books and episodes from the last year on the podcast. 
Thank you so much to all of our listeners for joining us over the course of the year and happy Christmas!
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Click here to order the books discussed in this episode from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Show Notes
Peter's choices: The Ruin of all Witches by Malcolm Gaskill, Surviving Katyn by Jane Rogoyska
Violet's choices: Albert & the Whale by Philip Hoare; Alexandria by Edmund Richardson
Artemis's choices: The City of Tears by Kate Mosse, Blood Legacy by Alex Renton
People/Social
Presenters: Peter Moore, Violet Moller, Artemis Irvine
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
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Tom Chivers: Journeys into Deep London (62 AD)

In this episode we visit London in 62 AD, barely twenty years after it was first established by the Romans, to traverse its lost landscape and hidden waterways.
When we think of London, we usually think of a sprawling urban metropolis: glass and steel, terraced houses, every imaginable form of transport and noise. We don’t often think about the natural landscape that lies beneath it all. And yet, our guest today argues, it is London’s geology that has been a crucial force in the shaping of the city over the last two thousand years. 
Tom Chivers is a writer, publisher and arts producer from south London. He is also an award-winning poet who has published two pamphlets and two full collections of his poetry. London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City is his non-fiction debut and it’s been described by critics as “entertaining, enlightening and deeply moving.”
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Click here to order London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City.
Show Notes
Scene One: 62 AD. The river Walbrook.
Scene Two: 62 AD. The Westminster Delta.
Scene Three: 62 AD. The Rockingham Anomaly, in Southwark, to meet Harper Road Woman.
Memento: A shoe. “I like the idea of the wearer’s footprint being retained in the soft leather, and also to imagine what kind of ground the sole has stood on/walked across.”
People/Social
Presenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Tom Chivers
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
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See where 62 AD fits on our Timeline 

Elizabeth Drayson: The Last Muslim Sultan of Granada (1492)

This week we head to Granada in southern Spain to witness one of the most important years in the history of not only Europe, but the whole world.
In 711 a band of Berber tribesmen made the short voyage from North Africa to Southern Spain, landing near Gibraltar. The land they found mesmerised them with its beauty and natural abundance, they settled down, built cities and were joined by Arabs from across the vast Muslim Empire who made al-Andalus their home.
Towards the end of the eleventh century, Christian Europeans began the long process of Reconquista, reclaiming the lands they saw as being rightfully theirs. By the late fifteenth century, only Granada remained in Arab hands and in 1492, Boabdil, the last Sultan of Granada, handed over the keys of the city to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella – the joint Catholic rulers of Spain.
We are visiting this watershed moment in the company of Professor Elizabeth Drayson, Emeritus Fellow in Spanish at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. Her new book, Lost Paradise, The Story of Granada, she reveals the full wonder of this city’s history, highlighting the experiences of some of its minority populations including Jews, Gypsies, women.
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Click here to order Elizabeth Drayson's book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Show Notes
Scene One: 2 January 1492, in Granada. Christian and Muslim royalty have assembled for the official surrender of the city to the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.
Scene Two: Mid-July, 1492, on the road to Cádiz, the route to one of Spain’s biggest seaports, as Jewish families prepare to sail into permanent exile from theirhomeland.
Scene Three: September 1492, in the old wood-panelled library of the University of Salamanca. Queen Isabella I of Castile meets Spain’s most renowned Humanist, Antonio de Nebrija, to accept his newly published grammar of the Spanish language.
Memento: the gold ring set with a turquoise owned by the last Muslim sultan of Granada.
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Elizabeth Drayson
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
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See where 1492 fits on our Timeline 
 
 
 

Nigel Pickford: Samuel Pepys and the Strange Wrecking of the Gloucester (1682)

On the morning of 6 May 1682, in unremarkable weather, the Gloucester, a 50-gun frigate of the Royal Navy, collided with a sandbank off the Norfolk coast. The wreck that followed was no ordinary one. For aboard was James, Duke of York, heir to the English throne and a glittering array of fellow travellers. Within hours of the collision, two hundred people were dead.
Today we travel back to the late seventeenth century and to the Norfolk coast to witness that dramatic shipwreck. It was an event that very nearly changed the course of English history.
Guiding us through this enthralling historical story is the author Nigel Pickford, the author of Samuel Pepys and the Strange Wrecking of the Gloucester. Pickford not only tell us about this story but he also gives us a peek into his unusual career, searching the oceans of the world for valuable shipwrecks.
This episode of Travels Through Time is supported by The History Press. To read a beautifully illustrated, exclusive extract from Samuel Pepys and the Strange Wrecking of the Gloucester, head over to Unseen Histories.
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Click here to order Nigel Pickfords book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Show notes
Scene One: Early Morning, Wednesday 3 May 1682. James, Duke of York, embarks on a royal barge at Putney.
Scene Two: 5am on the morning of 6 May 1682. The wrecking of the Gloucester.
Scene Three: 6 June 1682. Aboard the Charlotte yacht for the court martial of the pilot James Ayres.
Memento: A seventeenth-century wine bottle.
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Nigel Pickford
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Zoë Playdon: The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes (1967)

This week we uncover a fascinating legal case that had major implications for transgender rights in the U.K., but that has been hidden for the last fifty years.
Ewan Forbes was born in 1912 into an aristocratic Scottish family. He grew up in Aberdeenshire, studied medicine, started practising as a doctor in his local community and married. His patients and neighbours were aware that Ewan had been christened Elisabeth, but that, apart from a few exceptions, he had been viewed as a boy by himself and others since he was a child. In 1952, Ewan had successfully corrected the sex on his birth certificate from “female” to “male”.
In this episode we hear the story of what happened to Ewan some fifteen years later, when his older brother died and the question of who was the rightful heir of the family’s baronetcy sparked a legal battle which was to be of huge significance to the history of LGBTI rights.
Our guest is the academic Zoë Playdon. Zoë is the Emeritus Professor of Medical Humanities at the University of London. She holds five degrees, including two doctorates. For over thirty years Zoë has worked pro bono in the front lines of LGBTI human rights. She is a former co-Chair of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists, and in 1994 she co-founded the Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity with Dr Lynne Jones MP.
As ever, maps, images and much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Click here to order Zoë Playdon's book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.

Jamie Mackay: Garibaldi and the Birth of Italy (1860)

This week we are sweeping through Sicily and Southern Italy in the company of the original revolutionary hero, Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi.
In the mid nineteenth century, change was in the air as new political movements began questioning the status quo. Powerful ideas like socialism, republicanism, liberalism and nationalism were spreading through Europe, harnessed by charismatic leaders determined to bring about dramatic social change. None were more charismatic than Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Our guide on this epoch-making trip is Jamie Mackay, a writer who is based in the beautiful town of Fiesole just north of Florence. This episode relates to his book The Invention of Sicily which tells the story of this fascinating island, fought over and coveted by almost every civilisation in history, a romantic melting pot where cruelty and disaster were never far away.
As ever, maps, images and much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Click here to order Jamie MacKay's book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
 

Christina Lamb and Judith Mackrell: Looking for Trouble with Virginia Cowles (1938)

Flinging off her heels under shellfire in Civil War Spain. Taking tea with Hitler after a Nuremberg rally. Gossipping with Churchill by his goldfish pond. The pioneering 1930s female war correspondent Virginia Cowles did all of these things.
In this special episode, we’re joined by not one, but two experts to discuss the life of the trailblazing Virginia Cowles.
The first is the author Judith Mackrell, whose most recent book, Going with the Boys, follows six women journalists, including Virginia, who reported on the Second World War. The second is multi-award winning journalist and senior foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times, Christina Lamb, who has written the foreword to the re-issue of Virginia’s memoir. 
We join Virginia in 1938 as she reports from a Europe on the brink of the Second World War. 
As ever, maps, images and much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Click here to order Virginia Cowles' and Judith Mackrell's book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Show notes
Scene One: September, Nuremberg. Virginia attends a Nuremberg Rally and afterwards has a mind boggling conversation with Unity Mitford, a close friend of Hitler’s.
Scene Two: August, Prague. Virginia speaks to Czech citizens who fear imminent German aggression. 
Scene Three: October, London. Virginia has a conversation with Neville Chamberlain in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement. 
Memento: Christina chooses Virginia’s high heels, and Judith chooses one of the Nazi government’s traditional new year posters depicting an image of a helmeted German soldier with the caption “1939”.
People/Social
Presenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Christina Lamb and Judith Mackrell
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
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Tracy Borman: Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada (1588)

Historians often refer to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I as being England’s Golden Age. And of all the forty-five years in which she was the monarch, the year 1588 stands out as the most dramatic. It was a year of peril, a year of valour and a year of heartbreak.
In this episode bestselling historian and novelist Tracy Borman takes us back to the anxiety-ridden days of 1588. We watch on as the queen makes a speech that will pass into legend. We hover close by as one of her most famous portraits is painted. And we see the end of a tragic tale, as Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, dies.
While various events compete for attention throughout that summer – the arrival of the Armada, Leicester’s health - Elizabeth remains at the heart of everything. As Tracy Borman argues (and Violet Moller agrees), she was a queen to outrank all of the others.
As ever, maps, images and much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Click here to order Tracy Borman’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Show notes
Scene One: 9 August, 1588. Tilbury. As Philip II’s Armada is blown up the English Channel by a decidedly Protestant wind, Elizabeth rallies her troops at Tilbury, dressed in a breastplate and plumed helmet.
Scene Two: August/September, 1588. The painting of the Armada portrait. Elizabeth celebrates victory over Philip of Spain by ordering a pearl-spangled dress to wear for a glittering new portrait, filled with symbolism and hidden meaning.
Scene Three: 4 September, 1588, Oxfordshire. Elizabeth’s closest friend and love of her life Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, dies in Oxfordshire leaving her heartbroken.
Memento: The plumed helmet that Elizabeth wore when she delivered her Tilbury Speech.
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Tracy Borman
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Robert Lyman: A War of Empires (1944)

On this Remembrance Day the eminent historian Robert Lyman takes us to Burma, a country that was the crucible of action for a range of competing powers in the Second World War. In Burma the invading Japanese confronted the British, India, Chinese and Americans in a story that really became, as Lyman makes plain, ‘a war of empires.’
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For thirty years Robert Lyman has been studying the war in the Far East. While not as well-known as the conflict with the Nazis in Europe, events in south east Asia were crucial. The fortunes of the allied armies there did not only lead to VJ Day in 1945, they also had a powerful effect in shaping the post-war world that followed.
In this episode Lyman takes us back to the Indian/Burman border on the cusp of 1944. He explains how a revitalised Indian army and an incredibly talented British general, Bill Slim, were about to combine to tremendous effect.
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Robert Lyman is the author of the new book, A War of Empires: Japan, India, Burma and Britain. Click here to order Robert’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
This episode is supported by Osprey Publishing.
Show notes
Scene One: The Chindwin River, December 1943, on the border between India and Burma. Men of the Madras Regiment, Indian Army
Scene Two: 1st June 1944, Chief of Imperial General Staff’s office (General Sir Alan Brooke), War Office, Whitehall, London
Scene Three: 10 September 1944, Sittaung, Chindwin River. Men of the 11th East African Brigade, 14th Army.
Memento: A katana (a Japanese samurai sword)
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Robert Lyman
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
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Robert Sackville-West: The Missing of the First World War (1915)

The Armistice in 1918 might have brought an end to the violence. But for many families it did not mean the end of the story. In 1918 the whereabouts of more than half a million British soldiers alone remained unknown. These were often very young people, drawn from all walks of life, right across Britain.
They were people who had simply vanished into the battlefields.
In this episode Robert Sackville-West takes us back to the desperate days of the First World War a century ago. He shows us how Britons – from Rudyard Kipling to E.M. Forster – confronted the distressing situations they found themselves in, and how the bereaved attempted to come to terms with their loss.
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Robert Sackville-West is a writer and he runs the Sackville family’s interests at Knole, the house in Kent where his family have lived for the past 400 years.
Click here to order Robert’s book from John Sandoe’s who, we are delighted to say, are supplying books for the podcast.
Show notes
Scene One: 2 October 1915, a distressing telegram arrives at Bateman’s, the home of Rudyard Kipling.
Scene Two: 15 September 1915, Sir Oliver Lodge is playing golf at Gullane, on the east coast of Scotland.
Scene Three: November 1915, The novelist E.M. Forster arrives in Egypt as a Red Cross ‘searcher’.
Memento: An identity tag.
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Robert Sackville-West
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_
Or on Facebook
See where 1915 fits on our Timeline