Podcast From The Past

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are historians Karen Averby (Seaside Hotels, Beach Huts) and, from the London school of Economic, Dr Alex Mayhew. We meet the Brummies of North Devon, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez at the Albert Hall, Mr George next door, and look for a better picture of ruins. Taking a close look at the postcards of the First World War and seaside Grand Hotels, our guests share cards from their collections. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are writers Nicholas Royle (White Spines, First Novel, Regicide, Antwerp, London Gothic) and Clare Mackintosh (Hostage, After The End, Let Me Lie, I See You). We pull ourselves out of the quick mud and consider the grooves on Mummy Bunny's face with Aphrodite in the pink nightie; we discover the tantalising stories of postcards lost and found in secondhand books, and suffer les bunions de Paris with a surfeit of Eiffel Towers. Remember to use the postcode and mark it in Writer's Blood beside the vanishing signature of a Belgian surrealist. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are writers Emma Flint (Little Deaths) and Edward Parnell (Ghostland). We get a breeze in to cover our unease and anxiety, visit Stonehenge and London Airport, head to Kensington with a Frenchman we met at the airport, risk a pair of harem trousers and consider what goes on behind the net curtains. It's life, sliced up. Lace up your green trainers and try Bournemouth for the autumn tan. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are musician Sarah Gail Brand and historian Peter Mitchell (Imperial Nostalgia). We make sure the TV is tuned to Neighbours as we consider the spiritual possibilities of music, the perils of nostalgia (imperial and otherwise), bring the irresponsible archivists into the unfolding chaos of history, and steer clear of the Banana Night Shop. It's Shreddies with a hint of pub carpet. Don't miss the Bridal Spectacular. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are cartoonist Jeremy Banx (FT, Private Eye, New Statesman) and author Ruth Thomas (The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line, Things to Make and Mend). We head to the trippers' haunts and bric-a-brac bazaars to consider the Bristol Superfreighter, bubble cars in La Plata, and Blackpool as margarine; we follow a sheep up the stairs, avoid a disaster at the Hungarian Circus and hear about a childhood correspondence with Tove Jansson. Plus memory, regret and the perils of going back. You know the sort of life we lead. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are author CATHY RENTZENBRINK (The Last Act of Love, Everyone Is Still Alive) and TOBY HANNAM, whose collection of his grandfather's correspondence to his father from a Nazi concentration camp are a priceless family - and historical - archive and memoir. We explore postcards as lifelines, postcards as symbols of friendship, postcards in scrapbooks; we stroll from the Tower of London to Harrods pet shop, from Tahrir Square to the British Museum, from the Casual Sex Capital of the UK to an imagined suburban resort via London Zoo. Life in all its beauty and horror, on postcards. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are food writer and broadcaster TIM HAYWARD (Loaf Story, Knife, The DIY Cook) and from University of Brighton, academic ANNEBELLA POLLEN (Mass Photography: Collective Histories of Everyday Life, Nudism in a Cold Climate). We explore the aesthetics of John Hinde postcards, semi-ritual pig killing and a remarkable coincidence at Monte Cassino; we stroll a Victorian Brighton walkway under threat, join the witches and weirdoes and hippies and others, as we chase life stories in photo albums. Plus a glimpse of collectors' dreams and collectors' nightmares, secret messages and the dirtiest postcard of all. Cut on dotted line for a cocktail coaster. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are broadcaster and academic TOM SHAKESPEARE (Disability Rights and Wrongs) and Classic FM's ANNE-MARIE MINHALL. We uncover teenage memories from East Anglia, Viking marauders in Newcastle, the cricketing knowhow of Alf Gover and unresolved complexity in Mona Hatoum's sculptures. Plus Motorhead on the Isle of Man, Lonnie Donegan in Blackpool, Red Cabbage and the mystery of the Mexican Jumping Bean. God bless you always. and grant you a 4 and a half inch lolly. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are historian ALEX VON TUNZELMANN (Indian Summer, Fallen Idols) and director and playwright JACK MCNAMARA (Love From Cleethorpes, Dare to Look Down!). We discover embroidered children from Spain, the sinister images of Alfred Hitchcock, fur coats in Beirut and Cairo and imagine the childhood of Lemmy Kilminster. Plus experiments in postcard storytelling, practical tips on which monarchs are most easily toppled and the unexpected history of Alton Towers. Have a divine time and avoid being cancelled on both sides. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are writer SUSIE BOYT (My Judy Garland Life, Love and Missed) and the man behind the Shed of the Year, ANDREW WILCOX. We visit a model village, attempt a lock-in with Clint Mansell, suffer to entertain with Jean Barrault, and benefit from a nurse's healing smile. Plus hippies on the Mall, bedlam superimposed on bedlam in the stalls, and the chance to spot the Queen seven times and the Duke six. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson - recorded remotely thanks to the brilliant Wardour Studios - to discuss the postcards from their pasts are poetry critic and Senior Lecturer at the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at UEA, JEREMY NOEL-TOD (The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem) and Professor of Postcolonial Literature at the University of Leicester, CORINNE FOWLER (Green Unpleasant Land). Together, we discover the card that wasn't sent, hear ghost stories in the dark, and experience a coincidence of twins; we are hunted by hares in the Bodleian Library, struggle to find cassettes in Ipswich, take a hammer to bed and ponder just how stately, stately homes really are. Thank you very much for the skull ring. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson - recorded remotely thanks to the brilliant Wardour Studios - to discuss the postcards from their pasts are writer and broadcaster BOB FISCHER (Wiffle Lever To Full!, Summer Winos) and writer and media and communications consultant RACHAEL CHADWICK (60 Postcards). Together, we wade in nostalgia for school outward bound centres, explore a unique grief project in Paris, try living without the internet and learn about a family postcard mystery in the East End. Plus, Saturday Night Fever finally reviewed by a pack of girl guides. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson - recorded remotely thanks to the brilliant Wardour Studios - to discuss the postcards from their pasts are children’s author JONATHAN MERES and artist LIZA ADAMCZEWSKI. Together, we discover the identity of the boy petting the donkey, the houses won in card games, how much Marco found on the beach with his metal detector, who you might meet at Bush House and why a lengthy journey to the silver sands of Morar was worth making. Plus a bookshop behind a bed, mystery voices and a sharp-shooter in Melton Mowbray. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson - recorded remotely thanks to the wizards at Wardour Studios - to discuss the postcards from their pasts are actress and broadcaster MARIA MCERLANE and professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto and author of Wish I Were Here, MARK KINGWELL. Join us as we consider the Woolworth building, mix a Ward Eight, make an artistic enhancement to Queen Victoria, and capture the precise moment when lockdown started on a postcard. Plus windmills, broken windows and a barn full of ephemera. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson - recorded remotely thanks to the wizards at Wardour Studios - to discuss the postcards from their pasts are jazz singer and broadcaster IAN SHAW and money coach and podcaster MARTHA LAWTON. Join us as we put our cards on the table and dive fully-dressed into the swirling waters of Bantham, capture the calm before the storm in Barbados, and consider the poppies of Montecassino. Wish you were here? (And check out Ian's podcast Not Even Music https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-even-music/id1534829538 & Martha's podcast Squanderlust https://www.squanderlustpod.com.) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson - recorded remotely thanks to the wizards at Wardour Studios - to discuss the postcards from their pasts are musician and songwriter JUSTIN CURRIE from Del Amitri, and Ladybird book aficionado HELEN DAY (Ladybirdflyawayhome.com). We confuse baskets for boxes in Veneto, learn the secrets of a cream boy, and discover the postcard charm offensive waged by British pop groups on American fans. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson - recorded in the golden, faraway days before lockdown - to discuss the postcards from their pasts are novelist CAROLINE O'DONOGHUE and journalist ESTHER WEBBER. Amongst other postcard diversions, we explore non-threatening boys on a Paris balcony, ponder the twin villages of Brixton and Westminster, the unlimited charm of David Sedaris, and the loneliness of the long-distance academic. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson - recorded in the golden, faraway days before lockdown - to discuss the postcards from their pasts are writer & podcaster SIÂN PATTENDEN (Smash Hits, the Guardian, Agatha Bilke, Bigmouth podcast) and writer and performer BEN MOOR (Fist of Fun, A Supercollider for the Family, Undone, Coelacanth, Who Here’s Lost). We get ribbed about carpets, assess the joys of the suburbs, discover a million postcard artworks and confess to badgering Alan Bennett; the journey takes us from the shifting pebbles of Whitstable to a comfort break at the most talked about men's restroom in the world with Stewart Lee and Kevin Eldon. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson - recorded in the golden, faraway days before lockdown - to discuss the postcards from their pasts are comedian ALEX KEALY and musician KATE GARNER. In an episode littered with aliases, we meet Tompy, Wifey, Ex-Wifey, Bimbo Clive-Barclay and Pottle. We hear memories of Chas Hodges, exploding televisions, Mapp and Lucia and chain letters. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson - recorded in the golden, faraway days before lockdown - to discuss the postcards from their pasts are comedian HOLLY BURN and comedy writer DALE SHAW. We blow the housekeeping on a daytrip to London with the Backstree Boys and Blood Sausage, meet a dead pig in Westphalia, take tea in Hexham and fist the mousse - as they say in darts. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson - recorded in the golden, faraway days before lockdown - to discuss the postcards from their pasts are comedian and writer CHRIS NEILL (Woof) and novelist STEPHANIE BUTLAND (Lost For Words, The Woman in the Photograph). We cycle from Lands End to a broken tentpole, ponder the mystery floodlights of Ealing, and Unseen Weybridge, as well as Snow White, Auntie Hastings and a poet laureate. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's the end of Series 3, so we present a multi-view, a series of views of the stories the guests have told host Tom Jackson - all inspired by their postcards, in this third series of Podcast From The Past. We'll hear Scott Pack, Justin Edwards, A.L. Kennedy, Karen Shepherdson, Cariad Lloyd, Keggie Carew, Thane Prince, Tobie Mathew, Sukh Ojla, Julia Raeside, Tony Law & Marek Larwood. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are the hosts of the excellent Is It Rolling, Bob? podcast, actors KERRY SHALE and LUCAS HARE. We get stuck inside of Florence, take the big wheel in Yokohama, travel from bedsitland to Athena, meet Mr Natural and consider the challenges of buying Bob Dylan records in York in 1966. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are actor and writer SIMON KANE (Time Spanner, North by Northamptonshire, Shunt, The Monster Hunters, John Finnemore’s Double Acts) and critic and author CHRIS POWER (The Guardian, Mothers). Get your perm done, slip on your lurex and join a solemn bus tour tour round a crumbling gnome village, witness the mysterious Wayne, Wendy and a performing seal, marvel at the Lord Mayor’s Show of Misery (and Murder?), sample flowers, oysters, Blu-Tack and champagne. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are seaside historian KATHRYN FERRY (The Nation’s Host: Butlin’s and the Story of the British Seaside, Bungalows, The 1950s Kitchen, Holiday Camps, Sheds on the Seashore: A Tour through Beach Hut History) and writer, journalist and editor, VICTORIA RICHARDS (Primers IV, BBC News, Times, Independent). Join a charabanc tour round fake donkeys, Butlins, the thrills of mixed bathing, postcard witnesses to life-changing moments, and a snow fox from Japan. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are two award-winners: novelist and memoirist KERRY HUDSON (Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, Thirst, Lowborn) and writer and editor of Index On Censorship, RACHAEL JOLLEY. Join a tour round cartoonists, surveillance, Miss Cromer, and herrings, as we encounter random weddings, Russian translators, a curry pastie and a cream cake. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are comedy writer and novelist PAUL B. DAVIES (Dead Writers in Rehab) and journalist and author David Shariatmadari (Don’t Believe A Word). Join a menagerie of huge parrots, golden salamanders, boxing hares, surfing kangaroos and the flightless birds of New Zealand at this particular chimps’ tea party, and you might find yourself hot as rocket re-entry or cut up like a Brion Gysin notebook, as we encounter a paupiette of Shakespeare, Wordsworth and the language of umbrellas, and attempt to avoid a nasty teddy bear hostage situation. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are comedian TONY LAW and journalist and podcaster JULIA RAESIDE. We encounter Ronnie and Donnie, join Tony on the longest gap year and hear about Julia’s dream weekend, spent truffling through dusty boxes. Along the way we try hog-selling to raise funds, learn the true value of a Led Zeppelin cassette and enter into serious research into Indo-European horse tribes. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are two postcard collectors, dealers, enthusiasts and collectors, MARK ROUTH and MARK WINGHAM, respectively longtime columnist for, and editor and proprietor of, Picture Postcard Monthly. We hold in our hands two of among the first postcards ever sent, we discuss cricket, stamp books, propaganda, chance encounters in family history, the disastrous side of postcard collecting, and when is a modern not a modern. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are publisher SCOTT PACK (How to Perfect Your Submission, Weightless Fireworks, 21st Century Dodos) and photographer, curator and writer KAREN SHEPHERDSON (Seaside Photographed, Beyond the View: Reframing the Early Commercial Photograph). We encounter photographers photographing photographers, visit model villages inside model villages, and look through the wrong end of a telescope at our parents as children - welcome to the hall of mirrors that is Podcast From The Past at the seaside, in a special episode recorded live at the Turner Contemporary as part of the Margate Bookie 2019. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are crime writer SARAH HILARY (Someone Else's Skin,No Other Darkness, Tastes Like Fear, Never Be Broken) and historical biographer CLARE MULLEY (The Woman Who Saved the Children, The Spy Who Loved, The Women Who Flew for Hitler). We discover postcards from a Japanese internment camp, from Egypt during the First World War, and from a Blackpool tram. We hear about letters from Hitler’s bunker, letters in Austrian binbags and the story of Emperor Hirohito’s poster couple. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are food writer and broadcaster THANE PRINCE and journalist and expert in Russian revolutionary postcards TOBIE MATHEW (Greetings From The Barricades). We discover the strange and vibrant world of postcard manufacturing, collecting and sending in the latter days of Tsarist Russia, explore recipe postcards and catch glimpses of life in Hunstanton, Cromer, Clacton and the Isles of Scilly, as well as gaining an appreciation of public art and private messages.Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are comedian and actor SUKH OJLA (Victoria and Abdul, Black Mirror, Hospital People, EastEnders) and fellow comedian and actor MAREK LARWOOD (We Are Klang, Extras, Hyperdrive, Impractical Jokers, Celebability). We explore the pros and cons of conjuring your love life, the scariest waxworks no longer in the UK, the stress of receiving parcels and the best fantasies to entertain on a long train journey. Along the way we consider lonelyhearts, Tarantino's next film and the completely incomprehensible sound of Widecombe Fair. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are stand-up classicist and novelist NATALIE HAYNES (Amber Fury, The Children of Jocasta, A Thousand Ships) and shorthand expert KATHRYN BAIRD. We explore secret liaisons, Greek temples, waiting for war, Edwardian glamour and Pompeii. Along the way we consider the joy of Belgian biscuits, the dangers of reading too much and shorthand pens. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are journalist and novelist SOPHIA MONEY-COUTTS (The Plus One, What Happens Now?) and writer KEIRON PIM (Jumpin' Jack Flash, The Bumper Book of Dinosaurs, Into The Light). We explore the seamier side of 1960s London, discover why Sophia never climbed Kilimanjaro, and take a trip to Tupelo, Mississippi to lament the passing of the journalistic jolly. Along the way we consider the Devil and Herb Ritts, the lost art of slow slide descent, and witness 331/3 revolutions in parliament. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are journalist and author RACHEL JOHNSON (Notting Hell, The Lady, The Mummy Diaries) and writer NICK ASBURY (The Disappointments Diary, Realtime Notes). We explore Notting Hill, take a trip up the A6, discover the secrets of the Inferior Poetry Society, animal cruelty, jokes on postcards that are understood only by the senders. Along the way we consider twisted fan mail to Take That, if you should think twice about visiting Hibbing, and ask whether too much television can give you indigestion. And a postcard from the Prime Minister. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson, in a special programme recorded at the Birmingham Conservatoire as part of the Birmingham Literature Festival, to discuss the postcards from their pasts are writer and BBC 6Music broadcaster STUART MACONIE (Long Road From Jarrow, Pies and Prejudice, Adventures on The High Teas, The People's Songs) and award-winning poet LIZ BERRY (Black Country, The Republic of Motherhood). We uncover long-distance love, the best LP ever made, working class autodidacts and the mysteries of landscape. Along the way we visit the Wren's Nest, a steelworks, a series of royal arches, an Aberystwyth clifftop, the back streets of Salford and a New York church. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are comedian JAKE YAPP (Jake Yapp's Media Circus, Pleased To Meet You, The Hurting) and writer and film-maker ADAM SCOVELL (Mothlight, Celluloid Wicker Man). We explore family resentments, forbidden landscapes and ghosts conjured by postcard. Along the way we consider Derrida and celebrate Sempé, crumpet and the perils of dogmeat. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are award-winning novelist A.L.KENNEDY (Day, All the Rage, What Becomes, The Blue Book) and award-winning non-fiction writer KEGGIE CAREW (Dadland, Quicksand Tales). We explore family secrets revealed by postcards, the complicated pleasures of smutty jokes, and where best in your study to display your postcard collection. Along the way we will meet a Barcelonan plastic surgeon, the lightest patriot in Trafalgar Square and spend a holiday in a mouldy tent. Two great story-tellers take their prompts from postcards. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are actor and comedian and award-winning host of Griefcast, CARIAD LLOYD (Have I Got News For You, QI, Would I Lie to You?, Austentatious, Peep Show, 8 Out of Ten Cats Does Countdown, Murder in Successville) and actor and comedian JUSTIN EDWARDS (The Thick of It, In and Out of The Kitchen, Black Mirror, The Death of Stalin). In this series 3 launch episode we explore the plain weirdness of saucy seaside postcards, revisit some call-centre memories, uncover the extent of Justin’s beermat problem, and learn about Cariad’s undying devotion to David Bowie. Along the way we discover how Worzel Gummidge altered a Hampshire village for ever, what you call a hole in a mountain, and why you should always plan your exit from a pub on a hill. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's the end of Series 2, so we present a multiview, a series of views of the stories the guests have told host Tom Jackson - all inspired by their postcards, in this second series of Podcast From The Past. We'll hear Zeb Soanes, Kit de Waal, Grainne Maguire, Gideon Coe, Julian Dutton, Ruth Padel, Corrie Corfield, Simon Calder, Luke Turner and Lorraine Bowen. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are postcard collector and author of Paper Jewels: Postcards From The Raj, OMAR KHAN and anthropologist at SOAS, STEPHEN HUGHES. In this episode we explore the early days of Indian postcards, the connection between postcards and early cinema, postcards as personal legacy and why the postman was sometimes obliged to read the postcards he delivers. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are Evening Standard theatre critic FIONA MOUNTFORD and novelist MICHAEL DONKOR (Hold). In this episode we explore the emotional burden of mementoes, a one-sided postcard courtship, and postcards for the extremely lazy. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are antiques expert, broadcaster GEOFFREY MUNN (Antiques Roadshow) and writer JOHN GRINDROD. In this episode we discuss the fossils of Malta and relics of our pasts, the lost art of plane-spotting and tragedy foretold in carefree postcards from the start of the twentieth century. Plus sequins and petticoats. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are novelist SARRA MANNING (Unsticky, Adorkable, London Belongs To Us, The House of Secrets, The Rise And Fall of Becky Sharpe) and editor of Mojo JOHN MULVEY. In this episode we discuss masculinity and postcard-writing, the forgotten wartime delights of Rainbow Corner, share blurry memories of Britpop, and rediscover the days when music journalism was an exercise in post-structuralist theory. Plus alien honeysuckle. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are author, maker and blogger EMMA MITCHELL (Making Winter, The Wild Remedy) and writer MARINA BENJAMIN (Insomnia, Last Days in Babylon, The Middlepause, Rocket Dreams, Living at the End of the World). In this episode we explore the therapeutic and educational benefits of collecting anything and postcards in particular, and travel to Baghdad to see glimpses of a lost city. Along the way we ponder the perfectly placed pebble and waterskiing down the Thames. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are broadcaster and Independent travel editor SIMON CALDER and writer and editor LUKE TURNER (Out of The Woods). In this episode - recorded live in front of an audience at the The Bookseller Crow in Crystal Palace - we learn the tale of a cold war trip to the Channel Islands, discover a trove of cards that might unlock family secrets, uncover a sporran and ponder a house full of pop stars in Leamington Spa. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are journalist and broadcaster TOM SUTCLIFFE (Saturday Review, A Good Read, Round Britain Quiz) and actor LORELEI KING (Emmerdale, Notting Hill, Jonathan Creek, Storyteller: How To Be An AudioBook Narrator). In this episode we dig deep into art cards with messages, reflect on America's industrial heritage and explore De Chirico's dreamscape. Along the way we listen to the Hawaiian sounds of Brighton and ponder fame in Anne Hathaway's kitchen. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are BBC Radio 4 newsreader and announcer and author ZEB SOANES (Gaspard The Fox) and musician, Britain's Got Talent star and crumble enthusiast, Lorraine Bowen (Billy Bragg, The Dinnerladies, The Damned). In this episode we ride a funicular, look under a flamenco dancer's skirts, travel to Hearst Castle and do our best to avoid bouncing bombs. Along the way we learn the trouble with Scottish scenery and ponder a missing jar of chutney. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are paper-puppetry performing comedian BEC HILL(Dara O'Briain's Go 8 Bit, The Dog Ate My Homework, Sam & Mark's Big Friday Wind-Up) and broadcaster FIONA TALKINGTON (BBC Radio 3 Late Junction). In this episode we experiment with the joys of sliding down banisters, pitch a Shetland pony-based disaster movie, and discover the best way to have your music played on Radio 3. It's always sunny in the Thames Valley, so - all aboard the community bus. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are BBC 6 Music presenter GIDEON COE and poet RUTH PADEL (Rembrandt Would Have Loved You, Voodoo Shop, The Soho Leopard, Darwin - A Life in Poems, I'm a Man: Sex, Gods and Rock 'n' Roll). In this episode we suffer health cures in Edinburgh, explore ancient caves, are threatened by both a school of killer whales and a lone tiger, and do everything we can to avoid catching rabies. Along the way we remember the endless summers of childhood, celebrate the joy of a simple postcard message and plan a cavort with David Niven. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.