History Book Club

In 1347 Genoese merchants were holed up in Kaffa, in the Crimean peninsula as Mongols and Turks besieged the city. The invading army of Khan Djanibeg had been resisted for 2 years and so surely an end was in sight, especially as disease had ripped through the besiegers. But, in a final throw of the dice, the great King, using engines of war, hurled dead bodies, swollen from sickness and blackened from corruption, into Kaffa. A terrible plague ripped through the populace within, and the Genoese decided to leave by ship. They escaped, but so did the bacteria, and it would spread throughout the medieval world killing 100 million.

Joining today is Thomas Asbridge, author of The Black Death: A Global History as he discusses the terrible pestilence that had massive ramifications, and which still kills people today.

Thomas Asbridge Links

The Black Death: A Global History

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It’s Film Club time and this time it’s the longest movie ever made, Lawrence of Arabia. Peter O’Toole stares into space, and David Lean gets carried away so let’s get on with it as Roger, Tim and me give this so called classic a reappraisal.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Our Awards

Best Performance

Most Egregious Overracting

Biggest Plot Flaw

Historical Inaccuracy

What if Tarantino Made It?

Who won the film?

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English poetry has a rich and glorious history, and who better than to write about it than Mark Forsyth who writes with great verve and humour. He joined me to discuss it from the early medieval period all the way to the First World War and beyond

Mark Forsythe Links

⁠Rhyme & Reason⁠

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Paean to Patrick Leigh Fermor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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At 2.52am on 12 October 1984 Margaret Thatcher returned to her desk from visiting the lavatory of her suite at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Two minutes later a bomb exploded on the upper floor bringing down the large chimney, which collapsed through the hotel and destroying Mrs. Thatcher’s bathroom. She had a lucky escape, but as the IRA stated publicly later, they only had to be lucky once. She had to be lucky every time.

Joining the pod today is the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent Rory Carroll and author of Killing Thatcher, the thrilling account of the plot to kill the Iron Lady.

Rory Carroll Links

⁠Killing Thatcher⁠⁠

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Paean to Patrick Leigh Fermor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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The Battle of Thermopylae left one Spartan survivor, Aristodemus, and so he fought suicidally at Plataea a year later in 479BC, giving his life, but as you heard failing to impress his fellow Spartans. The commander of the Greek troops against the Persians that day was Pausanias, Spartan Regent and a quite fascinating figure who, according to Daniel Ogden his biographer, was responsible more than any other Greek for the preservation of Western Civilisation as we know it. He joins me to discuss Ancient Sparta, the influential king Cleomenes and Pausanias himself.

Daniel Ogden Links

Pausanias of Sparta

Regulus

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Paean to Patrick Leigh Fermor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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