Travels Through Time

Matthew Green: Shadowlands (1965)

This week we witness the drowning of the Tryweryn Valley, a devastating event which galvanised the Welsh nationalist cause. 
It’s easy to think of history as a gradual accumulation of events, buildings and people – but we don’t spend as much time thinking about its dead ends. That’s exactly what my guest today, Dr Matthew Green, does in his evocative new book Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain. In it, Matthew visits eight villages, settlements and towns stretching from the neolithic period to the twentieth century that fell victim to one form of obliteration or another.
For today’s episode, Matthew chose to travel through time to the beautiful Welsh valley of Tryweryn. Up until the 1960s, the valley was home to the village of Capel Celyn, one of the few predominantly Welsh-speaking communities left in Wales. But in 1955 the inhabitants of Capel Celyn became aware, via an article in their local paper, that their village was to be drowned.
This episode is supported by Faber and recorded at Soho Radio Studios. 
Show Notes
Scene One: 15 August 1965. The Tryweryn Valley, freshly scoured of streets, houses, school, post office, church, farms, graveyards and trees, is filled to capacity after the Capel Celyn Defence committee loses its monumental struggle against Liverpool Corporation and English MPs.
Scene Two: 10 October 1965. The publication of a lurid newspaper interview in which the leader of the Free Wales Army says his organisation fully intends to prevent the opening of Llyn Celyn.
Scene Three: 21 October 1965. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen of Liverpool Corporation attend the grossly insensitive opening ceremony of Llyn Celyn at a tea party in a marquee overlooking the new reservoir. All hell breaks loose.
Momento: The trampled Union jack flag that the Free Wales Army through into the new reservoir.
People/Social
Presenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Dr Matthew Green
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Seb Falk: The Astronomer and the Astrolabe (1327)

In this episode we venture on a journey of scientific discovery and meet one of the most important figures in English medieval science.
Geoffrey Chaucer has gone down in history as the ‘father of English literature’ and his Canterbury Tales are celebrated across the globe as the earliest work of fiction in that language. Less well known, but equally important, is his Treatise on the Astrolabe, the first technical manual written in English, in which he describes how to make and use these extraordinary instruments. Astrolabes were calculating devices, the smartphones of their day, which enabled scholars to make accurate observations of the stars and planets, and to calculate a huge range. 
In this period, scholars were almost always monks, their interest in astronomy and use of astrolabes were partially motivated by the need for accurate timekeeping and working out church dates like Easter. Seb Falk, our guide this week, reveals the wonders of scientific discovery in late medival England in his absorbing book, The Light Ages, A Medieval Journey of Discovery.
In this episode he takes us back to the early fourteenth century to a seminal year in the life of Richard of Wallingford, one of the best-known scholars of his day: a gifted astronomer, inventor, Abbot and ultimately, victim of leprosy.
Show Notes
Scene One: Summer 1327, Oxford University.  Richard of Wallingford is just finishing up his time at Oxford and composing two of his most important scientific works.
Scene Two: Autumn 1327, St Albans to Avignon, via London. Richard has been elected abbot and is making his way to have his appointment confirmed by the pope in Avignon. 
Scene Three: Winter 1327/Spring 1328, St Albans. Richard returns to St Albans and begins work on his marvellous astronomical clock. 
Memento: The abbot’s Albion instrument, which he invented but which is long since lost. We know exactly how it worked because the instructions for it are one of those important works he wrote in 1326-7 at Oxford.
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Seb Falk
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Nadine Akkerman: Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (1620)

In Women’s History Month we take a look back at a figure who has been misrepresented by successive generations of historians. Elizabeth Stuart, was the goddaughter of Elizabeth I and sister of the ill-starred Charles I of England. She was someone who played an active part on the times in which she lived. In this episode the Dutch historian Nadine Akkerman takes us back to meet a woman who was known as ‘The Queen of Hearts.’
In her riveting new book, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts, Nadine Akkerman draws back the curtain on centuries of hearsay and prejudice to reveal Elizabeth’s life in its full, extraordinary glory. This was a woman of great courage and intelligence, who ruled alongside her husband, guided their children after his death, played a vital role in contemporary politics, travelled extensively, wrote letters voraciously and hunted wild boar while eight months’ pregnant.
Who knows how the seventeenth century would have turned out if she had acceded to the throne of England in 1625 instead of her hapless brother Charles I. She was, in so many ways, the true successor of her namesake and godmother, Queen Elizabeth I.  
Show Notes
Scene One: Elizabeth all alone in Prague, refusing to abandon her subjects, while her husband is with the army.
Scene Two: The lunch before the battle of White Mountain. Her husband is in Prague and Elizabeth wants to visit the troops. They realize they are too late – battle has already begun.
Scene Three: Heavily pregnant, Elizabeth flees from Prague in search of a safe haven where she can give birth. 
Memento: Elizabeth’s ‘pacquet de nuit’; the one item the enemy (i.e. the Duke of Bavaria) managed to take from her during the flight. Ambassadors later try to get it back, so it must have been important to her. Previous biographers have translated it as ‘nightclothes’. I can’t imagine that to be correct, but I don’t know what it is either! 
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Nadine Akkerman
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Anthony Tucker-Jones: Winston Churchill and Victory in North Africa (1943)

In this episode the military historian Anthony Tucker-Jones shares his latest research on one of the great figures in British history: Winston Churchill. To get a close look at Churchill’s personality and his modus operandi, he takes us back to the year 1943 – a pivotal year at the heart of the Second World War.
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The fall of Tunis in May 1943 marked the first liberation of an occupied city by the Allies. It was a significant moment, the military historian Anthony Tucker-Jones argues, as important at the time as the victory at Stalingrad.
Winston Churchill was one who relished the news when it arrived in London. Always keen to be in the thick of the action, Churchill was soon climbing aboard a plane bound for Tunisia where he would address the victorious troops in person in the ancient surrounds of Carthage.
Churchill’s idiosyncratic manner is something that has long interested Tucker-Jones. In this episode he describes Churchill’s personality, his faults and his peculiar strengths through the prism of events in 1943. This was a time when his wartime popularity was at its height and a time when the fate of the Second World War swung firmly in the Allies’ favour.
 
As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.
Scene One: 7 May 1943. The Allied liberation of the Tunisian capital Tunis.
Scene Two: 1 June 1943. Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s visit to the Roman amphitheatre at Carthage, to congratulate 3,000 men of the British 1st Army on their victory.
Scene Three: 17 August 1943. The Liberation of Messina.
Memento: Churchill’s sun helmet from his trip to Carthage
People/Social
Presenter: Peter Moore
Guest: Anthony Tucker-Jones
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Christopher de Bellaigue: Suleyman the Magnificent (1534)

This week we travel back to the Islamic year 941 which straddles 1534/5 of our own calendar, a particularly deadly year in the reign of the Ottoman Emperor, Suleyman the Magnificent. 
There was no shortage of extraordinary rulers in the sixteenth century: Ivan the Terrible towered over Russia, England had its own Gloriana, Elizabeth I, Charles V governed the vast Holy Roman Empire, while in India, the Emperor Akbar transformed Mughal culture. But every one of these mighty potentates cowered in the shadow of the man who ruled the Ottoman Empire between 1520 and 1566 - Suleyman the Magnificent.
In his compelling new book, The Lion House, the award-winning writer and expert on the Islamic world, Christopher de Ballaigue takes us deep inside the Ottoman corridors of power in this dramatic period of their history.
Show Notes
Scene One: Transylvania. The death of Alvise Gritti, son of the Venetian Doge, merchant, millionaire and chief procurer of everything from guns to parmesan at the Ottoman Court, at the hands of the Hungarians.
Scene Two: Baghdad. Having recently taken the city, Suleyman awakes from a nightmare in which his treasurer Iskender Celebi, who has recently been hung on the Sultan’s order, tries to strangle him. 
Scene Three: Baghdad. Suleyman receives a letter from his beloved wife Hurrem, back in Istanbul, reminding him of the delights of home.
Memento: the extraordinary solid gold quadruple crown made in Venice for the Sultan, valued at 144,000 ducats and dripping with unimaginable jewels. 
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Christopher de Ballaigue
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen: A History of the Library (1850)

Of all the accomplishments of human civilisation, the creation of libraries, making the preservation and transmission of knowledge possible, is surely the greatest. In this episode the academics Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen take us back to 1850, a pivotal moment in the history of public libraries. 
Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen’s new book, The Library, A Fragile History, takes on the ‘long and tumultuous history’ of these noble institutions, from the clay tablets of ancient Nineveh to the problematic Google Books project (inspired, like so many other attempts to ‘encompass the world’s knowledge’, by the library of Alexandria). This is an unflinching look at library history, one that does not shy away from the neglect, the destruction and the moments when knowledge was lost.
Show Notes
Scene One: London, The House of Commons. The debate surrounding the Public Libraries Act is in full swing, giving us the chance to understand what this act meant to the development of libraries, and why it failed to gain so little support outside Parliament. 
Scene Two: Bordeaux, France. The great municipal library of Bordeaux, one of the finest public collections in France, and one of many similar Bibliotheques municipales. Although France had a system of public libraries that were, on paper, the envy of the world (due to the size and reputation of their collections), in reality they were tombs of books: rarely used, badly funded and frequently looted. 
Scene Three: New York, USA. The famous public library building was still decades in the future, but New York had a highly diverse system of different libraries, for different publics, that explain why a great central collection was so long in the making. 
Mementos: Arthur, One of the books stolen by Count Libri that went missing in the mists of time in order to return it to its rightful bibliothèque municipale. Andrew, mid 19th century ‘triple-decker’ edition of The History of Pendennis by William Makepeace Thackeray.
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Lulu Jemimah: The Last Pre-Colonial King of Buganda (1885)

This week we meet a misunderstood king who resisted colonial rule. 
History is full of kings and queens with bad reputations. And yet, on closer inspection, we often find these reputations weren’t always entirely justified. That’s the argument that my guest today, Lulu Jemimah, makes for King Mwanga II – the last pre-colonial king of Buganda before British colonial rule.
King Mwanga is known mostly for his part in killing 45 young pages who were Christian converts between 1885 and 1887, later known as the Uganda martyrs. Some scholars have argued that Mwanga was bisexual and that he had the pages killed after they refused his sexual advances in court. 
But what if Mwanga’s reign and reputation were more complicated than the picture this story paints? Mwanga came to the throne aged sixteen and inherited a kingdom which was under threat from European powers engaged in a “Scramble for Africa”.
Our guest is the writer, producer, and media consultant Lulu Jemimah. With over ten years’ experience she has worked across different platforms from print to radio, stage, and screen. She has also been involved in communicating research to broader audiences across topics like health, economics, history and politics.
Show Notes
Scene One: September, 1855. A meeting is held between Mwanga and his chiefs to discuss European influence on the continent.
Scene Two: October, 1885. The execution of Bishop Hannington
Scene Three: 15th November 1885. The execution of king’s close friend and confidante Joseph Mukasa Balikudembe by the Prime minister. 
Momento: The snake that tried to kill King Mutesa.
People/Social
Presenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Lulu Jemimah
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Ronen Steinke: The Arab Doctor and the Jewish Girl (1943)

In this episode of Travels Through Time we meet two extraordinarily brave people who formed an unlikely friendship in Hitler's Berlin. 
Their names were Dr Mohammed Helmy – a Muslim Egyptian doctor who had been living in Berlin since coming to study there in 1922 – and Anna Boros, a sixteen year old Jewish girl. When the Nazi regime's persecution of Jewish people started to escalate, Anna's mother approached Dr Helmy to ask for his help. His solution was to form a unique and daring plan that would fool the Gestapo just enough times to save Anna's life. 
Anna and Dr Helmy's story is the subject of a new book by our guest today, the journalist and author Ronen Steinke. Ronen is also a political commentator for Süddeutsche Zeitung,  Germany's leading broadsheet newspaper and has published a number of works in Germany on the Nazi period. His most recent book Anna & Dr Helmy: How an Arab Doctor Saved a Jewish Girl in Hitler's Berlin is published by Oxford University Press. 
Show Notes
Scene One: 1943. The Berlin mosque. A place that had fascinated Berliners and inspired the imagination of intellectuals and artists, a place that had been open to visitors and had attracted visitors like Albert Einstein - and a place where a particular friendship with the city's Jews had been visible since the mid-1920s. Now in 1943, this mosque was forcibly placed under the control of the Nazi-friendly Mufti of Jerusalem, a guest of honour of the SS.
Scene Two: 1943. The doctor's practice of Dr Mohammed Helmy in the well-to-do Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The Gestapo barge in, they are looking for a Jewish girl who has gone to ground in order to escape deportation: Anna. They don't find her however, they are met only by the doctor and his Arab assistant, and so they leave empty-handed. The beauty of this scene is: They have been duped.
Scene Three: 10 June 1943. The appartment of Dr Mohammed Helmy in the rough Moabit neighbourhood of Berlin. Nighttime. A secret meeting. Along with a fellow Egyptian, Dr Helmy helps the Jewish girl Anna whom he is hiding to convert to Islam. The idea is to save her life.
Momento: An instrument from one of Berlin’s jazz clubs.
People/Social
Presenter: Artemis Irvine
Guest: Ronen Steinke
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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Dr Priya Atwal: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire (1837)

In this episode of Travels Through Time we attend a magnificent Sikh royal wedding which was as much carefully orchestrated political theatre as it was the union of two people before god.
Indian weddings are famous for their exuberance and that of Prince Nau Nihal Singh, who married Bibi Nanaki Kaur Atariwala in 1837, may well have been the most extravagant of all time.
This lavish month-long celebration was an emotional moment for the young Prince’s grandparents, Ranjit Singh, ‘the lion of Punjab’, Maharajah and founder of the splendid Sikh dynasty that ruled northern India from 1799-1849, and his beloved wife, Maharani Datar Kaur. They oversaw the wedding preparations and presided over the whole extravaganza.
But while the guests feasted and the dancing girls performed, Ranjit Singh and his advisors were busy negotiating with representatives of the East India Company over the division of power in the Punjab and beyond.
Click here to order Dr Priya Atwal’s book Royals and Rebels, the Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire from an independent bookshop near you.
Show Notes
Scene One: March 6th, 1837. The 'vatna' ceremony performed by his family (particularly his grandmother and the senior queens) where the couple are smeared with a paste made of turmeric as part of his pre-wedding celebrations.
Scene Two: Early April, 1837. The wedding ceremony at the home of Sham Singh Attariwala, local warlord and father of the bride.
Scene Three: End of March, 1837. The military parade performed by the groom in front of Maharajah Ranjit Singh's British guests at the end of the month-long celebrations.
Memento: One of the Maharani’s incredible outfits, including the jewels!
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Dr Priya Atwal
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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David Bosco: The Struggle to Rule the Ocean (1982)

In this delightfully modern episode of Travels Through Time we are setting sail for an adventure on the high seas.
Our guest is David Bosco, author of The Poseidon Project, The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans, in which he charts the efforts of international organisations to create consensus and establish a structure of globally recognised rules for the oceans.
In this episode David takes us back to 1982, a fraught year on the high seas when Britain was battling Argentina in the South Atlantic for control of the Falkland Islands and the waters around them. In the Arctic, a British adventurer had just completed the famous Northwest Passage. He did so just as disagreement between Canada and the United States over the legal status of the Passage became acute. Meanwhile, final preparations were underway for the signing of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. But there was a cloud over the celebrations—the world’s leading maritime power, the United States, had decided not to sign.
Click here to order David Bosco's book The Poseidon Project, The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans from an independent bookseller. 
Show Notes
Scene One: January 1, 1982, The North Pole. Sir Ranulph Fiennes and his wife Virginia Fiennes celebrated the New Year with the rest of their expedition at a snow-covered base camp. 
Scene Two: June 8, 1982, the South Atlantic Ocean, approximately 500 miles northeast of the Falkland Islands. An aircraft bombs the tanker Hercules during the war between Argentina and the United Kingdom for control of the Falklands. 
Scene Three: December 10, 1982: Rose Hall Hotel, Montego Bay, Jamaica. The site for the signing of the new United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. 
Memento: The signed treaty from the convention in Montego Bay. 
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: David Bosco
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Unseen Histories
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