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Hi there all, just dropping a quick note, before I return to the writing desk… USA I’m aghast… and worried, and saddened by recent turns of events. And tonight I just wanted to send you all my love (well, obviously not all of you… some of you voted for a fascist) and just explain why I’m pulling an upcoming episode… hit play, spoken me explains it all better… No ‘Sources Include’ tonight - unless you’re in fight back mode - in which case no specific recommendation, but I’ll be looking round for a good book on the French Popular Front movement who formed in 1936, and destroyed the ascendant French fascist party, the Croix De Feu. Paul Mason’s How to Stop Fascism is as good a place to start as any… Hang in there USA…
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This week, it’s Halloween! So, naturally I’ve got a tale of… well, historic hotel rooms in Kansas City, Missouri… And a notorious murder carried out in Room 1046 of the Hotel President..
Sources Include:
This fantastic article by John Horner, which appears the font of a dozen or so other articles I read through.This post by the ‘Murder She Told’ podcastThis article on Tom Pendegast by K.C. Yesterday
And a handful of things found in online newspaper archives and genealogy sites.
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly.
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This week we return to Cuba to conclude our miniseries on the Cuban Missile Crisis. This week we discuss arctic explorers, nuclear test sites, saboteurs, spy planes gone awry, submarines and why I think having such power out there in an age where a ‘mad king’ could come to power is still very disconcerting.
Sources Include:One Minute to Midnight by Michael DobbsNuclear War by Annie Jacobsen
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On 16th October 1962, American President John F Kennedy was presented with three indistinct photos taken of several tubes laid out in a field in Cuba. Kennedy at first took the scene for a football field. His brother Robert, on viewing the scene, wondered if it depicted a farm house in mid construction.
It was, of course, a nuclear missile site in mid construction, and the following thirteen days brought humanity closer to nuclear war than any time before of since.
This fortnight, and next we’re looking at the Cuban Missile Crisis, primarily from the perspective of three potentially inciting incidents - one involving two saboteurs, another a spy plane, and the third a Foxtrot submarine. Sources Include:
One Minute to Midnight by Michael DobbsAnd Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly- with one credit I needs must acknowledge today. I stole the melody for the marimba music that plays under the Miguel Orozco parts from the verses of Jimmy Soul’s ‘If You Wanna Be Happy.’ Soul, in turn, had stolen that melody from the Trinidadian Calypso great Roaring Lion’s ‘Ugly Woman’ - no commentary meant on either artist, Mrs Soul or Mrs Lion - just needed a melody from that general location…
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Hi everyone, this week we’re doing things a bit different. I’ll be back from my mid year break with new episodes in two weeks’ time. In the meantime we’re running a pledge week for the Patreon channel.
Tuesday through Friday I’ll be dropping on old Patreon minisode per day - today, after visiting the set of the Donohue Show, we ask the question… Is a Nude Horse a Rude Horse?
Check out my Patreon! For just $2 a month* you get a minimum of one tale every month
(we’re committed to 20 a year there this year, and will start releasing two a month every month when we hit the first stretch target.)
As a patron you are helping to keep independent creators like me keep going. This includes occasionally putting down a month’s membership on some paywalled newspaper or other. This episode was penned a long time ago, and I’ve since lost the bibliography - but am pretty sure it grew out of something paywalled I found in the Washington Post.
Unsure if you want to join up yet? Try a 7 day free trial.
*Dollars quoted in USD…
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Hi everyone, this week we’re doing things a bit different. I’ll be back from my mid year break with new episodes in two weeks’ time. In the meantime we’re running a pledge week for the Patreon channel.
Monday through Thursday I’ll be dropping on old Patreon minisode per day - today we’re going to meet a now obscure, but terrifying General named Uqba Ibn Nafi.
Check out my Patreon! For just $2 a month* you get a minimum of one tale every month
(we’re committed to 20 a year there this year, and will start releasing two a month every month when we hit my first stretch target.)
As a patron you are helping to keep independent creators like me keep going, in my case Patreon money helps me buy books to research these tales, like the main source in this tale
Francois-Xavier Fauvelle’s ‘The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages
Unsure if you want to join up? Try a 7 day free trial.
*Dollars quoted in USD.
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Hi everyone, this week we’re doing things a bit different. I’ll be back from my mid year break with new episodes in two weeks’ time. In the meantime we’re running a pledge week for the Patreon channel.
Tuesday through Friday I’ll be dropping on old Patreon minisode per day - today we’re discussing one of history’s stranger What if’s. Thomas Johnson was a renowned smuggler, a talented escape artist - and it is rumoured he had a submarine - in 1820. Was he hired to bust Napoleon Bonaparte out of St Helena?
Check out my Patreon! For just $2 a month* you get a minimum of one tale every month
(we’re committed to 20 a year there this year, and will start releasing two a month every month when we hit my first stretch target.)
As a patron you are helping to keep independent creators like me keep going, in my case Patreon money helps me with the rental costs of the blog page - Speaking of blog pages, though I used half a dozen texts for this Tale - I first read this tale on the incomparable Mike Dash’s A Blast from the Past.
Emilio Ocampo’s The Emperor’s Last CampaignAnd F.W.N Bayly’s Scenes and Stories by a Clergyman in Debt were also very useful… book based resources.
Unsure if you want to join up? Try a 7 day free trial.
*Dollars quoted in USD.
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Hi everyone, this week we’re doing things a bit different. I’ll be back from my mid year break with new episodes in two weeks’ time. In the meantime we’re running a pledge week for the Patreon channel.
Tuesday through Friday I’ll be dropping on old Patreon minisode per day - today we visit Milan, the year 1630. A comet blazing across the sky spooks the people. Augurers spoke, the comet portends death - in one form or another. Then people started dying. This reminded the folk of an ancient legend… That one day, The Devil himself would come to Milan.
Check out my Patreon! For just $2 a month* you get a minimum of one tale every month
(we’re committed to 20 a year there this year, and will start releasing two a month every month when we hit the first stretch target.)
As a patron you are helping to keep independent creators like me keep going. This includes occasionally putting down a month’s membership on some paywalled newspaper or other. This episode was penned a long time ago, and I’ve since lost the bibliography - but am pretty sure it grew out of something paywalled I found in the Washington Post.
Unsure if you want to join up yet? Try a 7 day free trial.
*Dollars quoted in USD…
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Hey all I’m on holiday, though I’ve got a few things programmed to drop while I’m away… including this; a re-upload of this episode from October 2021.
“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.”
Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.
Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.
Tales of History and Imagination is on
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly.
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Hey all I’m on holiday, though I’ve got a few things programmed to drop while I’m away… including this, my short ode to the astronomer Tycho Brahe.
Sources include: Apologies all, this is from an old blog post where, now very much to my shame - I never noted my sources. If I’m recalling correctly I first heard the story of the moose/elk on a cracked.com video on YouTube (which I couldn’t find to link.) I think several of the posts I used have been taken down since, or paywalled?
Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.
Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.
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This week we conclude our mob Tale. With the bosses banged up, the Morello family must do their best to navigate a rapidly changing world - and several vicious wars. How will they deal with upstarts, Kings, The Camorra, prohibition - and the arrival of a Fifth Family?
Admin Note: Apologies for the messy scheduling of late. I’ve been a little worn out from everyday job stuff, a number of recent current events have been adding to the drain… and I’m well overdue a week of ‘me time’ away from the 9 to 5. I think I’m on the upswing, finally…
Also, I normally try to give myself a mid-season break after episode 10, where I’ll drop a couple of episodes I’ve prepared earlier. Cause this one ran to three parts I’m taking that break now, at episode 12. I’ll have a re-upload of 2021’s The Max Headroom Incident to drop in a little over a week’s time; a biographical piece on the Astronomer Tycho Brahe to drop two weeks after that, and a Patreon Pledge week (thanks to the Patrons for this one) where I’ll drop four minisodes from 2023 into the feed over four days… I’ll be back, all rested and good to go - two weeks after that.
Sources Include:
The First Family; Terror, Extortion and the Birth of the American Mafia by Mike DashFive Families by Selwyn RaabThe Black Hand by Stephan TaltyThe Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury
Support the show on | Patreon | for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.
Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.
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I haven’t yet made my X-it from X, but am very close to it… If Twitter was your thing come hand out with me on Threads.
Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly.
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This week, (sorry all, please bear with me- day job’s running me a little ragged, but I should be on track again in August) we’re returning to our mobsters - Giuseppe ‘The Clutch Hand’ Morello and the 107th Street Gang. In part two of this three parter we discuss the rise of the professional hitman, the first Capo de Tutti Capi - and the ballad of an ambitious young man named Antonio Comito.
Sources Include:
The First Family; Terror, Extortion and the Birth of the American Mafia by Mike DashFive Families by Selwyn RaabThe Black Hand by Stephan TaltyThe Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury
Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.
Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.
Tales of History and Imagination is on
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly.
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This week, (apologies for the delay all, I’ve been an absolute wreck the last couple of weeks) we’re returning to Little Italy; the year 1903. In part one of this two parter we discuss the early life of America’s first Capo di Tutti Capi, Giuseppe ‘The Clutch Hand’ Morello.
Sources Include:
The First Family; Terror, Extortion and the Birth of the American Mafia by Mike DashFive Families by Selwyn RaabThe Black Hand by Stephan Talty
Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.
Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.
Tales of History and Imagination is on
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly.
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This week, we take a magic carpet ride into the wilds of the Central Asian Steppe - timeframe? the mid 12th Century. Today we’re taking a (rather hagiographic) look at the early life of a young man named Temujin…
Sources Include:
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack WeatherfordEmpires of The Steppes by Kenneth HarlThe Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.
Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.
Tales of History and Imagination is on
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly.
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This week - we travel to the British Seaside town of Hartlepool. The date?? Sometime around the Napoleonic Wars. A French ship has run aground, leaving bodies strewn across the beach. Legend tells one survivor was found - a small, hairy man - subsequently hung by the locals.
Did the people of Hartlepool really hang a monkey, mistaking the animal for a French sailor?
Sources Include: (I think these were the sources when I wrote this in 2020…)
The Hanging of the Hartlepool Monkey by Ben Johnson Was a Monkey Really Hanged in Hartlepool? By Duncan LeatherdaleThis article on Ned Corvan by Tony Henderson
And online articles containing the full text of the Monkey Barber, and an article on Simian impersonator Monsieur Goffe I could no longer find (thanks for the AI Google 🙄)
I’d intended to sing The Fisherman Hung the Monkey O myself on this episode, but - long story, short version - I all but lost my voice a few weeks back to a cold. I found this version online by a gentleman named Keith Gregson, and borrowed a few lines. Go check out his channel.
Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.
Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly.
Tales of History and Imagination is on
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly (with the exception of Keith Gregson’s The Fisherman Hung the Monkey O.).
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This week - Adrian Carton de Wiart was a lifelong soldier; acknowledged for his bravery across the 2nd Boer War, the Somaliland Campaign, Poland’s several wars for independence - and both World Wars. The man started out with a cavalry sabre, and was still writing reports back to high command in the Atomic Age - advising of the risk of a war in Vietnam. He also had the aura of invulnerability - having survived eleven life-threatening injuries, several plane crashes, and single-handedly tunnelling out of a Prisoner of War camp.
Today I just felt like telling his story.
Sources Include:
Happy Odyssey by Adrian Carton de WiartAnd The Life and Times of Lieutenant General Adrian Carton de Wiart… by Alan Ogden
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Quick Admin note: sorry for the lateness all, I’ve been a bit run off of my feet of late… and the episode following this one will more likely than not be three weeks’ from now. After that we should be back on track again…. Sorry all.
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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This week we travel to the Germanic Duchy of Hannover, the year 1694. Under cover of darkness, a dashing, aristocratic young soldier named Philip Christoph von Konigsmarck makes his way to an illicit meeting with his lover; the deeply unhappily married Princess Sophia Dorothea of Celle. Before the night is done one of the lovers will disappear mysteriously.
Sources Include:
Great Mysteries of The Past - Readers Digest. Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics by Eleanor HermanThis National Geographic article by Becky Little
Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.
Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.
Tales of History and Imagination is on
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly.
Visit Simone’s
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Trigger Warning: Death by misadventure, and an execution by guillotine. I make no concessions for calling Aotearoa… Aotearoa. I mention this as in Aotearoa (New Zealand) news sites are having to shut down comment sections on Maori language, Maori achievement and Maori culture over racist morons getting upset by this news. If the use of Te Reo names over those of colonizers upsets you, this show really isn’t for you…
This week is a bit of a departure from my regular plan. I’m still working on the episode planned for this spot, so put a triptych of shorter tales together.
First, we meet Harold Davidson - the Vicar of Stiffkey. A man well known in Britain’s newspapers in the 1930s, who, if he was remembered today would probably be known for something else entirely.
Then we briefly meet Polynesia’s great navigators.
And finally we discuss Father of modern Chemistry Antoine Lavoisier’s final experiment.
Sources Include:
Sorry all, I’m running late this week and will backfill this later. Harold Davidson’s tale came to me years ago via Mike Dash’s original blog site - and this is one of a number of pieces no longer up - but it is preserved on the Wayback Machine -so I’ll link to it.
Michael King’s The Penguin History of New Zealand, and several articles on NZ History’s site and Te Ara, the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand were used in The Navigators.
The Lavoisier piece is an old blog piece jumbled together from a bunch of sources, I don’t recall all of them, but will take a shot at finding them on the weekend.
Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.
Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.
Tales of History and Imagination is on
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly.
Visit Simone’s
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Trigger Warning: Talk of executions, religious extremism and cannibalism. This week we return one last time to the city of Münster. With everything going to hell in Münster, Henry Gresbeck risks his life in a dash for freedom. The Prince Bishop has given orders to kill all men who show up at the wall - but Gresbeck has a secret that may just unravel the siege. How does this play out? Who will survive, and just what is a Wagenburg anyway?
Sources Include: There are very few book out there on this topic so I mostly worked from.The Tailor King by Anthony ArthurAnd Freaks of Fanaticism and Other Strange Events by Sabine Baring-Gould
Support the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial. Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.
Tales of History and Imagination is on
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Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly.
Visit Simone’s
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This week we return to the city of Münster, in the Holy Roman Empire. Now we’ve got all the context out of the way - let’s discuss the war between the Prince Bishop, and the city’s new rogue Prophet - the Tailor, Jan of Leiden. This is Part Two of a Three Parter. Sources Include: There are very few book out there on this topic so I mostly worked from.The Tailor King by Anthony ArthurAnd Freaks of Fanaticism and Other Strange Events by Sabine Baring-GouldSupport the show on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.
Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.
Tales of History and Imagination is on | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube |
Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly. Visit Simone’s | About Me | Twitter |
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