The Dog Days King
Hi everyone welcome back, to season four of the podcast. This week we’re delving into the picaresque, and the life of one Jorgen Jorgensen – a man whose trajectory in life was akin to the character in Sinatra’s That’s Life. A puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a King. Jorgensen was…
The Latest 100 (will manually add at bottom as we cross 100)
From Patreon: The Salmesbury Witches
Hey there readers and listeners, I’m on holiday till January 25th 2023, so I’ve programmed the following posts to drop weekly until I’m back. In September I…
Keep readingFrom Patreon: Owney Madden
Hey there readers and listeners, I’m going on holiday till January 25th 2023, so I’ve programmed the following posts to drop weekly until I’m back. In September…
Keep readingFrom Patreon: Otzi
Hey there readers and listeners, I’m going on holiday till January 25th 2023, so I’ve programmed the following posts to drop weekly until I’m back. In September…
Keep readingFrom Patreon: Puyi
Hey there readers and listeners, I’m going on holiday till January 25th 2023, so I’ve programmed the following posts to drop weekly until I’m back. In September…
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Hey everyone Happy Holidays. I had something in mind for a Christmas episode this year – and that thing ballooned out to around two hours of audio.…
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This is Part Two of a Two Part Series. For Part One Click Here. On 17th June 1943, Nancy arrived back in England. German U Boats had…
Keep readingMadame Fiocca – Part One
This is Part One of a Two Part Series. For Part Two, Click Here.To the Nazis she was the White Mouse, a resourceful operative who evaded their…
Keep readingA Short Tale in Honour of Transgender Awareness Week – 2022
Edit: (Monday 21 November 2022) I put a script to bed during Transgender Awareness Week. My original intent was to highlight two points; first, trans people have…
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Keep readingThe Wall Street Coup – Part One
Hi all, this is part one of a two-parter. Part Two is Here. This week’s tale opens on a ‘Hooverville’ – a makeshift village of the dispossessed;…
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Hi all, this week is probably the second, and final unplanned episode. If you’re curious, the new day job is going fine. Trigger warning on this one,…
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Hi all, I’m starting a new role at my day job, and seeing it is something in a whole new field, with possible homework to do -…
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Glenn Miller was a trombonist, composer, band leader and late 1930s – early 40s musical icon whose work is utterly impenetrable to me. Not that I mean…
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The human history of Kenya, were we to know it fully, would certainly be one of the longer histories out there. On the continent’s East, below the…
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Trigger Warning, This Tale discusses gun violence. If an account of a mass shooting is likely to upset, it’s fine to give this one a miss. I’ll…
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Keep readingThe Bottle Conjuror
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Keep readingBeyond the Archway…
Content Warning: This episode discusses Pseudocide – the act of faking one’s own death. I also cut and slashed at this script considerably in the podcast editing…
Keep reading… A Thousand Words?
Hey all, the podcast episode I’m running this week is from the back catalog of blog posts – so I have new, blog only content this week.…
Keep readingNjinga of Ndongo
Today’s tale is set in the African kingdom of Ndongo, modern day Angola – we touched upon this kingdom a few weeks back in the Tale of…
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Aurora is a small town in Wise country, in the North of Texas. The county came into being in the 1830s, following an armed standoff between 150…
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Content Warning: This week’s post briefly discusses a lynching and other horrific things… Our Tale this week opens on an ugly siege. The date September 9th 1925.…
Keep readingThe Pendle Witches (Part Two)
This week, let me begin with a personal digression. For a little over a decade I rented a place my friends and I referred to as the…
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One March day in 1612 Justice Roger Nowell of Pendle Hill, Lancashire was called upon by a complainant with a weird tale to tell. As a justice…
Keep readingThe Miser of Marcham Park
Hi all, welcome to the official 2020 Christmas Tale of History and Imagination. Merry Christmas all, I hope this post finds you all well. Today’s post begins…
Keep readingXenophon in Mesopotamia: Part One
Today’s tale is set in Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq, much of Syria and parts of Turkey. The date? 405 BC. Mesopotamia is an empire which predates the…
Keep readingA ’Time Machine’
Hi everyone, apologies for the drop off in new content… I’ve hit the wall, and needed a little time to get my mojo back. It’s all 9…
Keep readingThe Campden Wonder – The strange ‘murder’ of William Harrison
Today’s Tale begins on the night of 16th August 1660 in the town of Campden, Gloustershire. William Harrison – the 70 year old steward of Viscountess Campden…
Keep readingThe Strange Life, and Death of William Desmond Taylor
This third instalment in our pre-code, silent era Hollywood drama begins February 1st 1922. The setting? A posh bungalow at 404 B South Alvarado Street, Los Angeles…
Keep readingWhat goes up…. The Ballad of Franz Reichelt
Warning! This week’s tale deals with death by misadventure, which some readers may find disturbing. Today’s tale is set on a freezing cold morning, 57 metres above…
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One: Backward and Forward He Switched His Long Tail…. Over the hills and over the dale, And he went over the plain, And backward and forward he…
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Keep readingThe Max Headroom Incident
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Keep readingOlive Thomas – the poisoned chalice
This week’s Tale is part one of a four-part series on scandals of Hollywood’s Silent film era. It’s due to run on the non-podcast weeks. When I…
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Hey all, as I’ve got a podcast episode for the perennial ’Willie The Wimp (and his Cadillac Coffin) dropping this week, I’d intended to write a new…
Keep readingWillie the Wimp (and his Cadillac coffin)
Inspiration can come at you from so many ways. For me it sometimes comes in the form of a digression in a book that sticks in my…
Keep readingPrelude: Scandals of Hollywood’s Silent Era
Hey everyone, on in-between weeks (i.e. weeks I don’t publish a podcast episode) I’m resuming blog only posts. The plan will be to run several series on…
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There’s a popular myth that states the 35th President of the United States, John F Kennedy killed the hat. Now there is a tiny kernel of truth…
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Warning! Today we talk of a monster, doing monstrous things amidst a crumbling empire. Today’s tale begins in the Mongolian city of Urga – 1st February…
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Hey all I’m doing something a little different this episode. In the early days of the blog I wrote a piece on the Altamont Free Concert, December…
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The following is the Tale of the murder which occurred at 46 Lower Belgrave Street, Belgravia – on Thursday, 7th November 1974. It will be performed in…
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Hey all, this post is part two of the two part tale on the rocketeer Jack Parsons. If you’re picking up from here I recommend jumping in…
Keep readingSupplementary Info: Jack Parsons – Two Speeches
Hey all, apologies for the lack of blog post this week. The week has gotten too busy to string anything of worth together. The following document relates…
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Welcome folks. Sorry to do this to you – I really did want to start this tale out in the Mojave desert, following a magick man and…
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Hey all I don’t know how to tell this prelude without getting into a load of backstory. Thanks in advance for your forbearance. To understand how Jack…
Keep readingGrace O’Malley, the Pirate Queen
Today’s tale starts with a meeting at Greenwich palace, a now demolished royal residence – the date, September 1593. The ‘fairy Queen’ of England, Elizabeth I, awaits…
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I want to start this episode with a confession that should surprise no-one – as a kid I was mad for anything remotely described as Fortean. From…
Keep readingMithridates – The Poison King of Pontus
Today we join our tale right at it’s conclusion – the year 63 BC. The setting, the kingdom of Pontus – a once powerful Black Sea empire…
Keep readingMithridates – A Prelude
The following snippet is set 73 BC, the setting Otryae – a town in Phrygia – modern day Turkey. Two armies with long standing resentments face off…
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Content warning! This tale contains macabre, ghoulish subject matter – as one may expect on a Halloween Tale. Proceed with caution. Taphophobia is the name given to…
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Hi all, this programme differs from the show which was advertised. I spent the better part of three weeks, on and off, on the advertised show -…
Keep readingThe Tales Which Never Were ….
Hey all, this episode’s going to be a little different – the setting, a modern duplex in Auckland, New Zealand. Our subject, a rather worn out looking…
Keep readingThree Short Tales…
Hey folks the internet tells me you all like lists, so I thought I’d fill a gap in the schedule with a short list, of short tales.…
Keep readingMurder in Hartlepool…
Content warning, the following tale discusses xenophobic folk songs and pamphlets. Today’s tale is set in Hartlepool – a seaside town in County Durham in the North…
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(Originally titled The Deadly Sophxit of Count Konigsmarck and Princess Sophia Dorothea.) Hi all the following tale is something I’ve had rattling round for a little while…
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“This ain’t one body’s story. It’s the story of us all.We got it mouth-to-mouth. You got to listen it and ‘member.‘Cause what you hears today you got…
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Today’s tale is set in a theater in London England, for argument’s sake let’s set the date at some time in 1860. The crowd is enthralled by…
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“A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree, and he turns away. Show him facts and figures and he questions…
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The year is 1666, the setting Adrianople in the Ottoman Empire – modern day Turkey. A middle aged preacher named Sabbatai Zevi, held captive since his arrival…
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Hey all, I wasn’t planning this topic, but a friend asked me if I knew anything about this sea shanty craze on Tik Tok at present. My…
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Today’s scene, dear readers, the Southern French province of Gevaudan. The time, between 1764 and 1767, just after the bloody, costly Seven Years War. An unidentified maneater…
Keep readingFrau Troffea’s dance with the devil
Today’s tale is set in the city of Strasbourg – then part of the Holy Roman Empire – the date, mid July 1518. Frau Troffea, a local…
Keep reading“God is over all” The mystery of Eilean Mor
The Flannan Isles, sometimes referred to as the 7 Hunters, are a tiny group of islands on the outside of the Outer Hebrides – a string of…
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Local legend in the Kingdom of Mysore tells the following tale. One day, a young prince named Tipu went out hunting in the jungle with a friend…
Keep readingTwas a Couple of Days’ Before Christmas…
Hey everyone, this was – almost – this year’s Christmas post. I just wasn’t feeling it this year. On first draft though inspiration struck. I present this…
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At 4:45pm precisely, GMT, on 15th February 1894 the grounds of Greenwich Park, London – home of the Royal Observatory, and a clock we’ll discuss later –…
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The following was originally released in four parts, on the Facebook page, in June 2019. I’ve heavily edited, & collated the piece into one blog post. One:…
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Hi folks this week I am sharing a rather macabre tale. I should state up front, while this tale features a real, historical figure and his death,…
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Hi there folks, I’m doing something different this week. The tale of Dorothy Kilgallen goes on a short pause till I get a chance to review what…
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If she was just trying to get to sleep, and took the overdose of pills accidentally, why was the light on? Usually people sleep better in the…
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From 1974 to 1978 a vicious, sometimes cannibalistic war raged between two tribes in Gombe National Park,Tanzania. On one side was the Kasakela, the other side, the…
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Hi all just a quick update across all the socials. The final episode of the Batavia saga has been waylaid by needing to move home. The house…
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Act OneIt is early in April 1815 on the island…
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