Tales of History and Imagination

This week on Tales we enter the vaults to revisit - and re-record - one of the five early episodes still on here that was recorded on my cheap, starter microphone. (We’ll knock the other four off next year in mid-season breaks.)  With Christmas just around the corner this seems as good a time as any to follow a young Charles Dickens around Canongate Graveyard in Edinburgh Scotland looking for ghosts… And we meet the man who - most likely - influenced one of his most famous characters - John Elwes, The Miser of Marcham Park. Apologies for the break between parts one and two of The Tichborne Claimant. I’m hoping to get that out in the last week of December.  Sources this week include:  Sorry all I never took down any of my sources for this at the time of the original. In revamping the piece though I referred to  This BBC Article. This Mercat Tours blog post This Edinburgh Enquirer article by David Forsyth This BBC piece on Robert Fergusson And this piece on Fergusson from Roderick Watson at Scottish Poetry Library This piece from the Royal College of Physicians on Dr Andrew Duncan Very rare for me, I referred to Wikipedia for more on Dr Andrew Duncan This piece on Giusto Fernando Tenducci And this piece on Tenducci by Aoife Barry in The Journal And John Elwes: The Miser Who Inspired Dickens by Kaushik Patowary   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 - (give or take… sorry all it’s been a rough year… Back to fortnightly Wednesdays in 2026?).   Tales of History and Imagination is on  | Facebook | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube | 

Quick note all: This episode is approx 29 minutes long… I’ve accidentally left some background music or something muted at the end + will delete that and re-upload once home again… Sorry all, there is no secret Easter egg at the end of this episode, it’s ok to hit stop when the end credits roll…  This week On Tales we return to the Australian outback - this is the last time we visit my neighbours to the west of Aotearoa/New Zealand for a while, I promise. The year is 1866, the location Wagga Wagga.  Tom Castro, the town’s Chilean-born butcher has a good life, living in ‘Castro villa’ with his young wife and step-daughter. He enjoys his work, horse riding and his larrikin mates down at the local pub… But then one of those larrikins turns his life upside down with a newspaper article.  Was Tom secretly Baronet Roger Tichbourne, a British peer who disappeared in mysterious circumstances off the coast of Brazil a dozen years earlier? This is part one of a two parter. Apologies ahead of time, I’ll more likely than not have to pause part two till late December/early January to allow for a Christmas episode.   Content warnings: Not too much on this one. Some animal cruelty, and appearance being central to this tale, I have to comment on the protagonist’s appearance in ways not intended to offend… but I may slip up on this one        Sources Include: Robyn Annear’s The Man Who Lost Himself| Rohan McWilliam’s The Tichborne Claimant Support Tales 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 the following, so please follow me.    | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |        

This week On Tales we return to the Arctic, the year 1871. Charles Francis Hall has passed on, mysteriously, after drinking a suspiciously sweet, yet metallic coffee. What will happen to the expedition as power passes to the hard-drinking Sidney Buddington? Today we’ll find out.  This is part two of a two parter. Apologies for the delay in getting this one out there - it took some of my neighbours a week to run out of fireworks bought for Guy Fawkes Day.  Content warnings: Death. Gun violence. Brief mention of sexual abuse.      Sources Include: Fatal North by Bruce Henderson. Arctic Experiences… by Euphemia Blake The Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton This New York Times article on John Torrington (that, shockingly, was not behind a paywall) Support Tales 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 can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |  

This week On Tales we take a slight detour from the Polaris Expedition: I think where that Tale goes IS shocking, but not terribly in a Halloween horror kind of way… So this week we’re taking a ride to the town of Halifax, England to meet The Halifax Gibbet - someone’s wild solution to petty thievery.   We’ll return to The Polaris in a fortnight.  Content warnings: Beheadings. Sources Include: Daniel Defoe’s A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain. Samuel Midgley & William Bentley’s Halifax and It’s Gibbet Law Placed in A True Light Support Tales 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 can be found on… | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |        

This week On Tales we travel back to 1871, to take a journey to the top of the world. Our intrepid hero, Charles Francis Hall has dreams of becoming the first man to stand on the North Pole - but dreams can sometimes go horribly awry. Just what happened to the Polaris Expedition?  This is part one of a two parter (part two will follow after we take a brief intermission for a Halloween special episode.)  Content warnings: Death. Gun violence.     Sources Include: Fatal North by Bruce Henderson. Arctic Experiences… by Euphemia Blake  The Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton This New York Times article on John Torrington (that, shockingly, was not behind a paywall) by Leanne Shapton Support Tales 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 can be found on… | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |      

Last week when I covered the Tale of Spring Heeled Jack, I mentioned a couple of people in passing without explanation… Apologies all, I’ll be coming back to a few of those people sometime in the near future… But with regards the Hammersmith Ghost, there is a Patreon minisode from back in 2022. I re-recorded the episode over the weekend.  The following minisode comes to you by way of the generosity of my backers on Patreon.        Content warnings: Gun violence.    Support Tales 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 can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |  

This week on Tales of History and Imagination we return to an episode from the first season to give it a new coat of (red) paint… speaking of, we’re going back to London in 1837 to discuss newspapers, the death of ‘Silly Billy,’ ‘painting the town red’ and a mysterious sex pest whose legend took on a life of it’s own throughout the remainder of the century…    Content warnings: This week we discuss a sexual abuser.    Sources Include: I failed to keep a list on this one back in 2020, (apologies all) and mostly built it up from online articles and a Reader’s Digest book on Mysteries … but  Mike Dash’s ‘Spring Heeled Jack: To Victorian Bugaboo from Suburban Ghost  Was a given.  Support Tales 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 can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |        

This week on Tales of History and Imagination we discuss a murdered nanny, the murderer… his awful ancestors, and said murderer’s mysterious disappearance.  Trigger warnings: murder.    Sources Include: A Different Class of Murder by Laura Thompson And several dozen news articles, including this piece from Lynn Barber interviewing John Aspinall This one from Steven Morris on the many theories on Lord Lucan’s disappearance This one (Morris and Angelique Chrisafis) on Jungle Barry (sometimes called Jungley Barry) This article (author not listed) from the Whanganui Chronicle on an unpleasant man named Roger Woodgate  This article by Gary Nunn on John Stonehouse This Daily Mail article by Laura Thompson on the Taxi Driver hypothesis And a handful of documentaries I never recorded at the time of writing the first attempt at this script a few years ago…            Support Tales 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 can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |        

This week on Tales of History and Imagination we return one last time to the wreck of the Batavia. This is where things, finally, go all ‘Lord of the Flies’ on Batavia’s Graveyard.  This is part four of a four parter - thanks for hanging in there with me all… I promise a load of one parters in the back half of the year. Trigger warnings: murder, rape, descriptions of death by dehydration, a pitched battle and a handful of executions.    Sources Include: Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash And Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons.    Support Tales 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 can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |  

This week on Tales of History and Imagination we return to the wreck of the Batavia. In part two we follow the adventures of the 48 in the longboat as they make their way along Australia’s Western coast; learn a little more about Francisco Pelsaert, and speak of the first of the murders on Batavia’s Graveyard.  This is part three of a four parter. Trigger warnings: Murder, colonialism, accidental poisoning.    Sources Include: Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash And Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons.  Support Tales 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 can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |  

This week on Tales of History and Imagination we return to the wreck of the Batavia. In part two we discuss heresy, and the harrowing life of under-merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz.  This is part two of a four parter. Trigger warnings: Murder, colonialism, child mortality, religious extremism.    Sources Include: Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash And Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons.  Support Tales 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 can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |  

This week on Tales of History and Imagination we return to Australia for a real life soap opera that was considerably more bloody than Neighbours or Home and Away. First we need to take a cruise on a Dutch VOC flagship called The Batavia, the year 1629.  In part one of a four parter, we discuss the voyage; how and why folk took such risks to travel to the end of the earth like this - and the voyage itself, right up until the ship wrecked on Houtman’s Abrolhos.  Note: Apologies all, as you can hear my voice is still a little scratchy on this one… I’ve had a bit of a nasty cold, and figured better to get this out now, than keep you waiting a month and a half to start this. Part two should be less so…  Trigger warnings: Murder, colonialism, attempted genocide and sexual assault.    Sources Include: Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash Ocean by John Haywood And Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons.  Support Tales 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 can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |        

This week we travel to Australia for a game of Marn Grook, to discuss origin stories; perhaps the archetypal troubled sportsman - and horrific massacres.     Trigger warnings: Murder, suicide, colonialism, and to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people listening to this episode - I discuss some of your origin legends as best I can, and play a brief excerpt of a speech from an Aboriginal elder.  Sources Include: Australia’s Most Unbelievable True Stories by Jim Haynes This University of Newcastle Article on Aboriginal massacres, quoting studies by Professor Lyndall Ryan This NSW State Library piece on The ‘First Fleet’ This article on Edward Wills First Contact by Anita Heiss This piece on the Dreamtime. The deplorable (alleged) Neo-Nazi interruption of tribal elder Mark Brown, care of the Guardian Speeches from Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese on election night 2025, care of SBS News.                Support Tales 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 can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |        

The American actress Ilda Orme knew a thing or two about being cancelled, a long, long time before social media put the cancel button in the hands of the public at large. Her cancellers, she suspected were two hateful former in-laws and a theatre manager in their pocket.  Her cancellation was nearly literal - culminating in an assassination attempt.   What does one do when cancelled? If you’re Ilda Orme, you seek revenge in the most public way possible.  Trigger warnings: Gun violence and false accusations leading to incarceration.  Note: This fortnight’s episode is a little shorter than usual in the hope that doing a quick firebreak episode will get me back on a two-weekly schedule. Next fortnight should be back to around half an hour again.  Sources Include: The Battered Body Beneath The Flagstones and Other Victorian Scandals by Michelle Morgan  The Madness of Ilda Orme by Dr Nell Darby     Support Tales 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 can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |      

On, or around 11th June 323 BC Alexander the Great died in Babylon. While there are mysteries surrounding his passing - did an Indian holy man prophesy his passing a year prior while self immolating in Alexander’s presence? Was he poisoned? Did somebody entomb him while still alive? - He is just a cameo in this Tale.  This week we travel to Athens - then chafing under the Macedonian yoke - as they make a bid for freedom.  Trigger warning: some swearing, talk of three suicides. We discuss the fall of two mighty empires and one despot.  Sources Include: Ghost On The Throne by James Romm A History of Greece To 322 BC by N.G.L Hammond Support Tales 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 has ‘X-it-ed’ from Musk’s hellsite, sorry Twitter folk. But I can be found on… | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |        

On May 18th 1926 the evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson took a trip to Santa Monica Beach, California to work, seek inspiration and have a little fun in the sun. However, the day would end in tragedy when Aimee disappeared without a trace.  Was her disappearance all it appeared? Sources Include: The Vanishing Evangelist by Lately Thomas   Support Tales 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 has ‘X-it-ed’ from Musk’s hellsite, sorry Twitter folk. But I can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |      

Hi all, welcome back (again) - sorry it’s a week later than planned… a few ongoing voice issues from the cold. This week we conclude the tale of Sidney Reilly and the ‘Red Terror.’  Sources Include: R.H. Bruce-Lockhart ‘Memoirs of a British Agent’ Sidney Reilly + Pepita Bobadilla ‘ Adventures of a British Master Spy’ James Palmer ‘The Bloody White Baron’ Support Tales 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 has ‘X-it-ed’ from Musk’s hellsite, sorry Twitter folk. But I can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |      

Hi all, welcome back - sorry it’s a week later than planned… I had a nasty cold. This week we’re in Russia just after the October Revolution. The Bolsheviks have taken over, plunging the nation even further into disarray. They’re determined to exit the First World War.  Britain, knowing this would be disastrous for their war with Germany need a hero to go in there and upset the apple cart - the kind of talented, yet completely amoral man Ian Fleming would draw on years later when crafting his best known invention - James Bond.  This week, part one of two: Who was Sidney Reilly, and how did Russia find herself in this mess?    Sources Include: R.H. Bruce-Lockhart ‘Memoirs of a British Agent’ Pepita Bobadilla & Sidney Reilly ‘ Adventures of a British Master Spy’ This ‘Spycraft 101’ episode Featuring Giles Milton   Support Tales 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 has ‘X-it-ed’ from Musk’s hellsite, sorry Twitter folk. But I can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |    

This week we travel to the city of Münster, in the Holy Roman Empire. The year, 1534. Tensions have ratcheted up between the City’s Prince Bishop, the City Council and a rogue preacher to the point where the people have gone rogue - having rebelled, locked the gates and set up the cannons for war. Over the following two episodes we’ll break down what happened during the siege of Münster.. This is part one of a two parter.        Sources Include:  There are very few books out there on this topic so I mostly worked from. The Tailor King by Anthony Arthur And 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  | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok | Threads | Instagram | YouTube |    Music, writing, narration, mixing yours truly.  Visit Simone’s  | About Me | Twitter |   

Hi all, Happy Holidays! This year I’ve got a ghost story for you all. Today we travel to Greenbrier County, West Virginia in 1897.  Sources Include: Again this week I’ve gone from a handful of online articles, a few online genealogy pages - and a couple of podcast episodes.  Including… ‘How The ‘Greenbrier Ghost’ Helped Convict a West Virginia Murderer in 1897’ by Joey Rather.  This website on ghosts in West Virginia. ‘Can We ‘See’ Dead People?’ By Mark Shelvock. ‘The Greenbrier Ghost’ by Brian Dunning.  Zona Heaster Shoe’s ‘Family Search’ genealogy page. Erasmus Stribbling Shoe’s listing on Find a Grave.              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 has made our ‘X-it’ from Musk’s hellsite (and will be deleting my profile in the new year,) but I’m still on   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube |