A Nude Horse…
Today’s tale begins on a flash forward to Monday January 21st 1985. The setting, a television set at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York. Phil Donahue, a television interviewer who cut his teeth interviewing everyone from presidential candidate John F Kennedy to the atheist Madeline Murray O’Hair was treading the boards, microphone in hand. Donahue was…
The Latest 100 (will manually add at bottom as we cross 100)
The Murder of William Desmond Taylor
The following is a murder mystery. The date? February 1st 1922. The setting? A posh bungalow at 404 B South Alvarado Street, Los Angeles. At around 7pm,…
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The Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle Incident
Content Warning: Discussion of rape occurs in this tale. The weeks leading up to Labour Day weekend 1921 must’ve been quite the roller coaster for Roscoe ‘Fatty’…
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Andrei Shkuro’s Carnival of Sorrows
Hey all just a quick reminder. 1. The Hollywood Trilogy is still running, part two set to drop this Wednesday2. This blog post is available as a…
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Olive Thomas – the poisoned chalice
Trigger Warning: This episode deals with premature death (I know, not unusual in this blog)… and sexually transmitted infections (somewhat more unusual in this blog). Situated northwest…
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Somebody’s Darling…
Hi all just a quick blog post today. I’ve got a trilogy of older blog posts set to run on the podcast in the coming weeks, so…
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Railway War!
This week we’re riding the rails through Colorado. The date, February 26th 1878. Just before 7am, on a chilly winter day, two groups of men boarded a…
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The Diaspora
In the year 751 AD an epic battle was fought between two mighty powers. We don’t know for certain if it happened in Taraz, modern day Kazakhstan;…
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Mussolini’s Hat, and the rise of the Mob (Revisited)
Hi all, we’ve got a little unfinished business from last fortnight’s episode, so I’m revisiting this older episode, and giving it a serious rewrite. Last fortnight we…
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The Black Hand
Hi everyone, today I thought we’d go to the opera. What you can hear in the background is Enrico Caruso’s Una Furtiva Lagrima – from Gaetano Donizetti’s…
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Roxelana
The following is the tale of a loving wife and mother. A philanthropist and a catalyst for change both within a stuffy old establishment, and among a…
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The Island
On January 1st 1739 the French ships Aigle and Marie were fumbling through the lowest, most inhospitable regions of the Southern Atlantic Ocean when they found something…
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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…
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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…
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From 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…
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From 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…
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From 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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The Frost Fair
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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Madame Fiocca – Part Two
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…
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Madame 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…
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A 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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Revenge of the Tallysticks
This week I’m starting with a quick anecdote. Please bear with me, this is not going to be a regular thing. Nor is the general tone of…
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Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?
When trying to imagine the lives of Robert Hart, Thomas Willets, Bob Farmer and Fred Payne on April 18th 1943, I get a certain picture in my…
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The Wall Street Coup, Part Two
Hi all the following is Part Two of a Two Part Tale. Part One is Here If I may, folks, I’d like to resume this Tale by…
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The 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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Oliver
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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The Sin Eater, Wizard of Mauritius & ‘Mr Good Day’ – Three Work Tales
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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The Many Deaths of Glenn Miller
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 Ghost & The Darkness
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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The Infernal Machine
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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The Georgia Guidestones
Edit: 8 July 2022 – Hi there I can see a lot of traffic coming to my blog/podcast looking for this post at the moment. The following…
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The Childe of Hale – a Short Tale
The following is just a quick blog post I threw together this morning, needing something for the week – and having recently tied of a bunch of…
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Spencer Perceval
Trigger Warning: The following episode discusses gun violence – particularly the assassination of a head of state. Note for the readers, I’ll get a blog only post…
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The Carrington Event
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ―…
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Bearcat
Hey all I’m ‘taking a break’ for a month – well, more accurately going into writing and recording mode for a month. On the podcasts front I’m…
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The Old Man of The Mountain
Hey all this is the third and final instalment on the Assassins. If you’re coming to this first, part one is here – part two here. I…
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The Mongols are Coming!
Hi there this is part two of what will probably be a three part tale. If you haven’t checked out The Cult of Hassan-i Sabbah first, click…
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The Cult of Hassan-i Sabbah
This post/podcast episode is part one of a two (edit: probably Three) part Tale. I’ll be dropping part two in a fortnight. There is a shadowy tale…
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Alas, poor Tycho…
Hey all, I had something completely new in the works for both the blog and podcast this week… owing to a few things happening in my day…
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The Bottle Conjuror
Today’s tale is set on the night of January 16th 1749; the setting, The Haymarket Theatre – on London’s West End. Originally built in 1720, on a…
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Beyond 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…
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… 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.…
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Njinga 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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The Phantom Airships
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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Dr Sweet’s Defence
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.…
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The 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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The Pendle Witches (Part One)
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…
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The 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…
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Xenophon 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…
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A ’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…
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The 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…
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What 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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Spring Heeled Jack: The Terror of London
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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The Max Headroom Incident
This week’s tale is set in the Windy City – Chicago, Illinois. The time, a very specific 9.14pm on 22nd November 1987. The city’s sports fans are…
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The Enfundu
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…
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Willie 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…
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Giovanni Batista Belzoni – Tomb Raider
Hi all welcome to this month’s YouChoose topic. Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first of the Indiana Jones films had just turned 40 the day I…
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The ‘New Atlantis’?
Hey all, my voice is still very strained, very gravelly – unable to hold together while projecting for more than four words in a row. Were we…
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Ungern’s Army
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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eden ahbez – Nature Boy
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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Nellie Bly: 10 Days in a Madhouse
“I would like the expert physicians who are condemning me for my action, which has proven their ability, to take a perfectly sane and healthy woman, shut…
Keep readingThe Sin-Eater
Hey all, please count the following as week ten of this week’s ten week sprint. I’m taking a four week break, though the podcast will continue with…
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Lord Lucan
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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Jack Parsons – Babalon’s Rocketeer (Part Two)
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…
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Supplementary 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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Jack Parsons – Babalon’s Rocketeer (Part One)
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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Jack Parsons – a prelude
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…
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Grace 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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The Bagradas Dragon
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…
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Mithridates – 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…
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Mithridates – 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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Buried Alive!
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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Shen’s Magnificent Journey
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 -…
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The 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…
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Three 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.…
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Murder 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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Sophxit
(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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John Frum, messiah
“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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Henry ‘Box’ Brown
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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Dorothy Martin’s Flying Saucer
“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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Sabbatai Zevi- The Monty Hall Problem
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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Soon May the Wellerman Come
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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The Beast of Gevaudan
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…
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“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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Tipu’s Tiger
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…
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Twas 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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Hannibal in Bithynia
Today’s tale is set in the Asiatic town of Libyssa, in Bithynia – on the periphery of what is now Turkey. The date, some time around 182…
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Martial Bourdin
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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Altamont: The Ballad of Meredith Hunter
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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The macabre death of Antoine Lavoisier
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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Samuel Parnell and the fight for the 8 hour workday
Hi all I feel like telling a local tale for once this week. Please be prepared, dear reader, for one this will feature more New Zealanders than…
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The New Colossus
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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The Strange Death of Dorothy Kilgallen
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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Reader Challenge: On J.F.C Fuller
Hi everyone, this week I’m doing things a little differently. I think this will be a one off, but the process was fun. A few weeks before…
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Charles Lightoller’s worst night ever
Today’s tale is set in the North Atlantic ocean, around 400 miles off the coast of the then Dominion of Newfoundland. The date 15th April 1912. The…
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The Gombe Chimpanzee War
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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Marsha Albert’s Letter
Edward Bulwer Lytton, a man of letters, once wrote ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’. He wrote several other memorable phrases, one of which has led…
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Andrew Jackson’s parrot
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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The Wreck of The Batavia
Part One – The Wreck. Hey all, this Tale originally ran over seven episodes – over two months. To find the next part/s scroll to the bottom…
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Before Rock and Roll – A Playlist (part two)
Hi all, sorry for the delay. For part one, which includes the Spotify playlist itself, Click Here Hi all, let’s put that playlist to bed. Apologies for…
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Before Rock and Roll – a playlist (part 1)
Hi all welcome back for the fifth installment of my early rock and roll, Thursday series- I know it’s a little late, I’ve suddenly had to look…
Keep readingThe Older Stuff (more than 101 Episodes ago)
Podcast Episode 10: Tom Horn – Gunslinger (part 3)
Hi all this is the third part of this tale,…
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The sincerest form of flattery… a bonus tale
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay…
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Podcast Episode 10: Tom Horn – Gunslinger (part 2)
Hi all welcome to Tales of History and Imagination, on…
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Podcast Episode 9: Tom Horn – Gunslinger (part 1)
Hi everyone, just a quick update. In my 9 to…
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Quoth the Raven – The tale of the Poe Toaster
Hi everyone welcome to the final blog tale before we…
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A single light punching through the darkness – a bonus tale
Hey all I thought I might share a few short…
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Coffee! – The Swedes battle for a good cup of Joe
I really feel I should declare upfront, I am very…
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Hazel Scott; the rise, and tragic downfall of a phenom
Little girlDreaming of a baby grand piano(Not knowing there’s a…
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Denis Diderot and his magnificent dressing gown
Hi everyone just dropping a quick blog off the cuff…
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Mount Tambora, a Butterfly Effect in Four Acts
Act OneIt is early in April 1815 on the island…
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The Vela Incident; why radioactive sheep matter
For he who grew up tall and proud,In the shadow…
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Ziryab- Influencer Extraordinare
Hi everyone, welcome to this week’s blog. Just a quick…
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Guillaume Boucher and the Fountain of Karakorum
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree:…
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The Nature Boys, Part One… A Supermarket in California
“What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for…
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Women’s History month 4: Hell hath no fury, like the Trung Sisters
“Heav’n has no rage, like love to hatred turn’d, Nor…
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Women’s History Month 3, Five trailblazing ladies
Hi folks it is time for the latest in Tales…
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Women’s History Month 2: Mary Anning, The Carpenter’s Daughter
Hi folks, happy Womens History Month! I had something completely…
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Women’s History Month! Mary Cassatt’s ‘In the Loge’
Hi folks, about time I posted something new I think?…
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On “Villains” and true villainy – The Harrying of The North
Hi folks I wrote this post, originally to the Facebook…
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A “Tales of History and Imagination are all around us” moment: a spy, a physicist and a pop star
Hi folks, …. any time I start with “Tales of…
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Why O is for Owesome, and OK is Oll Korrect
Hi there folks thanks for liking the page. If you’re…
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