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 Wiart And 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.

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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 Herman This National Geographic article by Becky Little

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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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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.

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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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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 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.

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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 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.

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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

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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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Hi all, I’m technically still on holiday (Tales will be back for Season 5 on 1st February.) - but I was on the mic on Sunday, and had a little downtime … and a spare script or two. This week we meet Charles Lightoller, a remarkable sailor, on what I believe must have been his worst day ever?     

Sources Include: 

I wrote this to the blog in early 2020… so …. pass, sorry. But articles probably included.  

This History Channel article - Author not listed.  This Encyclopaedia Titanica article looks very familiar… Author not listed … And this Dunkirk 1940 dot org article… Another anonymous piece. 

AND I’m 100% certain I used an article from the Liverpool Museum website… But it appears they have taken that article down some time ago?? 

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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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Music, writing, narration, mixing normally yours truly. I probably unintentionally interpolated from Tom Lewis’ ‘The Last Shanty’ in the background music this week - so credit where credit is due.   

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Happy Holidays all! This week we travel to Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1950. It’s four in the morning when a policeman comes across a young couple huddled together in their car. Like another young couple a few millennia before, they tell him they have come to town, only to find no room left at the inn. Little does the officer know, but he’d stumbled across a theft hundreds of years in the making. 

Sources Include: 

As I couldn’t find any books for this one, there were quite a few online articles - including. 

A copy of a news report two days after the theft. 

This ‘The National’ article on the Battle of Culloden, and the genocide that followed, by Hamish McPherson

This Smithsonian overview of the Scottish Independence movement by Meilan Solly

A Britannica entry on the Stone of Scone

A BBC Article (no author listed) on Alexander III of Scotland.

The Stone of Destiny (History UK) by Ben Johnson

A My Heritage page listing Tea Tephi

This ‘Tomorrow’s World’ article on the Prophet Jeremiah and his alleged arrival in Ireland.

This University of Glasgow article on Ian Hamilton and the Removal of the Stone of Scone

Another religious article (author not mentioned) about Jacob’s Ladder, his pillow, and his stupid claim God promised him Gaza.

This BBC article by Steven Brocklehurst about the Removal of the Stone of Scone

This Royal UK piece on James II

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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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