Podcasts

Conn Iggulden is a British author who has conquered the field of historical fiction. Iggulden’s books have taken readers from Ancient Rome (Empire) to Mongolia (Conqueror), and most recently, to early medieval England. They discuss the history and motivation behind his latest novel Dunstan, including how Charles Dickens helped inspire it. Dunstan is an often-overlooked, yet fascinating figure: a tenth-century monk whose story is woven among the reigns of seven English kings. This is a chance to go behind-the-scenes of writing historical fiction and learn how Iggulden approaches his novels. He explains his research process and how he chooses his characters, including why he prefers flawed figures from distant pasts. Get an author’s insight into what you do when you run out of facts, and just how much fiction you can get away with in historical fiction. Subscribe to our mailing list to keep up to date with everything History Hit, click here. Producer: Dan MorelleSubscribe, rate and review on iTunes and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres (230 ft) long and 50 centimetres (20 in) tall, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings. Joe Whitlock Blundell has been Design and Production Director of The Folio Society for over 20 years, responsible for all aspects of the books’ appearance: typographic design, art direction, choice of materials, and manufacturing quality. In this capacity he has seen well over 1,000 different titles into print. He is also a photographer with a number of books and one-man exhibitions to his name. View this episode's images here. Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes and follow Janina on Twitter. Follow History Hit on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Please share this episode on Twitter and Facebook. Producer: Dan Morelle View this episode's images here. Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes and follow Janina on Twitter. Follow History Hit on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Please share this episode on Twitter and Facebook. Producer: Dan Morelle

Dan Plesch is director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS, University of London. He is the author of America, Hitler and the UN, co-editor of Wartime Origins and the Future United Nations, and has been a frequent contributor to the Guardian and other media. His new book is entitled Human Rights After Hitler: The Lost History of Prosecuting Axis War Crimes Come along to our next live event in London, tickets available at http://events.historyhit.com Subscribe to our mailing list to keep up to date with everything History Hit, click here. Producer: Dan MorelleSubscribe, rate and review on iTunes and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Neil Gregor is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Southampton. He has published widely on 20th century German history, including 'Daimler-Benz in the Third Reich' (1998) and 'Haunted City: Nuremberg and the Nazi Past' (2009), both of which won the Fraenkel Prize for Contemporary History. Come along to our next live event in London, tickets available at http://events.historyhit.com Subscribe to our mailing list to keep up to date with everything History Hit, click here. Producer: Dan MorelleSubscribe, rate and review on iTunes and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The Kiss was painted by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt between 1907 and 1908, the highpoint of his "Golden Period", when he painted a number of works in a similar gilded style. A perfect square, the canvas depicts a couple embracing, their bodies entwined in elaborate robes decorated in a style influenced by both linear constructs of the contemporary Art Nouveau style and the organic forms of the earlier Arts and Crafts movement. The work is composed of oil paint with applied layers of gold leaf, an aspect that gives its strikingly modern, yet evocative appearance. The painting is now in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum in the Belvedere palace, Vienna, and is widely considered a masterpiece of the early modern period. It is a symbol of Vienna Jugendstil—Viennese Art Nouveau—and is considered Klimt's most popular work. View this episode's images here. Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes and follow Janina on Twitter. Follow History Hit on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Please share this episode on Twitter and Facebook. Producer: Dan Morelle

Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillis Professor James Daybell - @JamesDaybell Follow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPod HistoryHit Network - Twitter Facebook Producer - Dan Morelle

Allen Arnold is an Interpretive Ranger for the National Park Service. The Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States. Located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida, the fort was designed by the Spanish engineer Ignacio Daza. Construction began in 1672, 107 years after the city's founding by Spanish Admiral and conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, when Florida was part of the Spanish Empire. The fort's construction was ordered by Governor Francisco de la Guerra y de la Vega after the destructive raid of the English privateer Robert Searles in 1668. Work proceeded under the administration of Guerra's successor, Manuel de Cendoya in 1671, and the first coquina stones were laid in 1672. The construction of the core of the current fortress was completed in 1695, though it would undergo many alterations and renovations over the centuries. Come along to our next live event in London, tickets available at http://events.historyhit.com Subscribe to our mailing list to keep up to date with everything History Hit, click here. Producer: Dan MorelleSubscribe, rate and review on iTunes and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Melvyn Bragg paints a colourful portrait of the 1381 violent uprising, the biggest armed rebellion against Church and State in English history. www.cvhf.org.uk

Michael Scott @drmichaelcscott is an Associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick, author of several books on ancient Greek and Roman society, and has written and presented a range of documentaries for National Geographic, History Channel, ITV and the BBC. View this episode's images here. Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes and follow Janina on Twitter. Follow History Hit on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Please share this episode on Twitter and Facebook. Producer: Dan Morelle

HMS Warrior was a 40-gun steam-powered armoured frigate built for the Royal Navy in 1859–61. She was the name ship of the Warrior-class ironclads. Warrior and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warships, and were built in response to France's launching in 1859 of the first ocean-going ironclad warship, the wooden-hulled Gloire. Warrior conducted a publicity tour of Great Britain in 1863 and spent her active career with the Channel Squadron. Obsolescent following the 1871 launching of the mastless and more capable HMS Devastation, she was placed in reserve in 1875, and was decommissioned – in 1883. View the HMS Warrior in 360 degrees on this Periscope recording. Subscribe to our mailing list to keep up to date with everything History Hit, click here. Producer: Dan MorelleSubscribe, rate and review on iTunes and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillis Professor James Daybell - @JamesDaybell Follow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPod HistoryHit Network - Twitter Facebook Producer - Dan Morelle

This episode gives you the history behind the headlines. Andrea Berger @andrearberger is an Associate Fellow at RUSI and a Senior Research Associate and Senior Program Manager at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies. Andrea's research focus is North Korea, Pacific, Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, UK Project on Nuclear Issues, Global Security Issues, Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Sanctions. Andrea tweets about nukes, sanctions, and Korean Peninsula. She is a contributor for the Arms Control Wonk podcast. Producer: Dan MorelleSubscribe, rate and review on iTunes and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

In this talk, best-selling author Robert Harris turns to one of the key scandals in French history, the Dreyfus Affair. Discussing this infamous miscarriage of justice that rocked France in the years before the first world war, he brings new insights to this world of secret service dealings, cover-ups and betrayal… www.cvhf.org.uk

Sir Stanley Spencer (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter.[Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if in Cookham, the small village beside the River Thames where he was born and spent much of his life. Spencer referred to Cookham as "a village in Heaven" and in his biblical scenes, fellow-villagers are shown as their Gospel counterparts. Spencer was skilled at organising multi-figure compositions such as in his large paintings for the Sandham Memorial Chapel and the Shipbuilding on the Clyde series, the former being a World War One memorial while the latter was a commission for the War Artists' Advisory Committee during World War Two. As his career progressed Spencer often produced landscapes for commercial necessity and the intensity of his early visionary years diminished somewhat while elements of eccentricity came more to the fore. Although his compositions became more claustrophobic and his use of colour less vivid he maintained an attention to detail in his paintings akin to that of the Pre-Raphaelites. Robin Ince @robinince is an English comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for presenting the BBC radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage with physicist Brian Cox. View this episode's image here. Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes and follow Janina on Twitter. Follow History Hit on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Please share this episode on Twitter and Facebook. Producer: Dan Morelle

Dr Sam Willis - @DrSamWillis Professor James Daybell - @JamesDaybell Follow the show's new Twitter: @UnexpectedPod HistoryHit Network - Twitter Facebook Producer - Dan Morelle

Henry Hemming @henryhemming is a historian and author of five works of non-fiction including In Search of the English Eccentric, Misadventure in the Middle East, shortlisted for the Dolman Travel Book Award, and Churchill’s Iceman, published in the US as The Ingenious Mr Pyke, which became a New York Times bestseller. M: Maxwell Knight, MI5's Greatest Spymaster is out on 4th May. Producer: Dan MorelleSubscribe, rate and review on iTunes and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Watch Janina's new 3-part series, An Art Lovers Guide starting on BBC Four from 1st May at 9pm. Watch on iPlayer here. With sumptuous palaces, exquisite artworks and stunning architecture, every great city offers a dizzying multitude of artistic highlights. In the series, Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on three cultural city breaks, hunting for off-the-beaten-track artistic treats - and finding new ways of enjoying some very famous sights. The Night Watch, is a 1642 painting by Rembrandt van Rijn. It is in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum but is prominently displayed in the Rijksmuseum as the best known painting in its collection. The Night Watch is one of the most famous Dutch Golden Age paintings and is window 16 in the Canon of Amsterdam. View this episode's image here. Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes and follow Janina on Twitter. Follow History Hit on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Please share this episode on Twitter and Facebook. Producer: Dan Morelle

In this talk, best-selling author of Wild Swans, Jung Chang gave a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern china and an intimate portrait of the most important woman in Chinese history. One of the emperor’s concubines, she launched a palace coup to become the Empress Dowager Cixi, the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population who overcame huge obstacles to bring a medieval empire into the modern age. www.cvhf.org.uk

Chris Naunton @chrisnaunton is an Egyptologist, writer, broadcaster and public speaker. Chris has a PhD in Egyptology and is currently writing a book with the provisional title Search for the Missing Tombs of Egypt for Thames & Hudson. Producer: Dan MorelleSubscribe, rate and review on iTunes and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1472 – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is known for his portraits, both of German princes and those of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation, whose cause he embraced with enthusiasm, becoming a close friend of Martin Luther. He also painted religious subjects, first in the Catholic tradition, and later trying to find new ways of conveying Lutheran religious concerns in art. He continued throughout his career to paint nude subjects drawn from mythology and religion. He had a large workshop and many works exist in different versions; his son Lucas Cranach the Younger, and others, continued to create versions of his father's works for decades after his death. Lucas Cranach the Elder has been considered the most successful German artist of his time. Peter Stanford is a writer, biographer, journalist, and broadcaster. Peter’s new book, Martin Luther: Catholic Dissident is out now. View this episode's image here. Subscribe, rate and review on iTunes and follow Janina on Twitter. Follow History Hit on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Please share this episode on Twitter and Facebook. Producer: Dan Morelle