Travels Through Time

After a short break at TTT, enter the world's largest flying machine. ‘R101' was one of the most ambitious creations of the airship era. Plans for it began about a century ago in the 1920s. The vision of engineers and politicians was that the 1930s were to mark the start of a new epoch in air travel. R101 was to lead the way. Huge airships were going to glide through the imperial skies, binding together the distant outposts of the British Empire. In 1930 R101's story reached its tragic climax when, seven hours into a flight from its base in Bedfordshire, it crashed to the north of Paris. Of the fifty or so on board, only a handful survived the hydrogen fireball. R101's story, and the history of the era that created it, are the subject of a new book by the New York Time bestselling author S.C. ‘Sam' Gwynne. His Majesty's Airship tells the story of ‘the life and death of the world's largest flying machine'. In this episode Sam takes Peter back to see R101 as the moment of disaster nears. To be in with winning one of two hardback copies of His Majesty's Airship, listen in to this enlightening and dramatic conversation. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. To read an extract and see images from His Majesty's Airship, visit unseenhistories.com Show notes Scene One: 30 June 1930. Royal Airship Works, Cardington. R101 is beset with problems. Scene Two: 4 October 1930. The departure of R101 from Cardington, Bedfordshire. Scene Three: 5 October 1930. Near Beauvais, France. The crash, and aftermath. Memento: R101's Control Car People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: S.C. Gwynne Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1930 fits on our Timeline

Join Peter Moore and Sarah Bakewell for a little walking tour of Fleet Street in London. Instead of three scenes, in this episode they stop off at three locations, as Peter tells Sarah about three of the characters who appear in his new book: the printer William Strahan, the writer Samuel Johnson and the politician John Wilkes. Peter Moore is a Sunday Times bestselling historian. His new book is Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Britain and the American Dream. Sarah Bakewell is a prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author, most recently of the history of humanism: Humanly Possible. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Location One: The Old Cheshire Cheese (William Strahan) Location Two: 17 Gough Square (Dr Johnson's House) Location Three: Near John Wilkes's Statue on Fetter Lane People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Asking questions: Sarah Bakewell Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_

In 1520 the artist Albrecht Dürer was on the run from the Plague and on the look-out for distraction when he heard that a huge whale had been beached on the coast of Zeeland. So he set off to see the astonishing creature for himself. In this beautifully-evoked episode the award-winning writing Philip Hoare takes us back to those consequential days in 1520. We catch sight of Dürer, the great master of the Northern Renaissance, as he searches for the whale. This, he realises, is his chance to make his greatest ever print. Philip Hoare is the author of nine works of non-fiction, including biographies of Stephen Tennant and Noël Coward, and the studies, Wilde's Last Stand and England's Lost Eden.  Spike Island was chosen by W.G. Sebald as his book of the year for 2001.  In 2009, Leviathan or, The Whale won the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. It was followed in 2013 by The Sea Inside, and in 2017 by RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR.  His new book, Albert & the Whale led the New York Times to call the author a 'forceful weather system' of his own. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton, and co-curator, with Angela Cockayne, of the digital projects http://www.mobydickbigread.com/ and https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/ As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: Nuremberg, home of Albrecht Dürer, at the height of its power as an imperial city, of art and technology. Scene Two: The Low Countries. Driven out of Nuremberg by the plague and a city in lockdown, Dürer escapes to the seaside. Scene Three: Halfway through his year away, Dürer hears a whale has been stranded in Zeeland.  This is his chance to make his greatest print, a follow up to his hit woodcut of a rhinoceros.  What follows next is near disaster, a mortal act.  It changes his life. Memento: Memento: A lock of Dürer's hair (which Hoare would use to regenerate him and then get him to paint his portrait) People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Philip Hoare Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Colorgraph Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1520 fits on our Timeline 

It's time to revisit our archives. In this episode one of the world's great historical novelists takes us back to one of the most dramatic and consequential moments in European history. Bernard Cornwell is our guide to the Battle of Waterloo. Waterloo. That single word is enough to conjure up images of Napoleon with his great bicorn hat and the daring emperor's nemesis, the Duke of Wellington. Over the course of twelve or so hours on a Sunday at the start of summer, these two commanders met on a battle in modern-day Belgium, to settle the future of Europe. For a battle so vast is size and significance, it still has some elusive elements. Historians cannot agree on when it started. The movement of the troops is still subject to debate. Wellington, who might have been best qualified to answer these riddles, preferred not to speak of Waterloo. His famously laconic verdict was simply that it was ‘the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life.' Few people are as qualified to analyse this tangled history as Bernard Cornwall. For forty years he has been writing about this period of history through his ‘Sharpe' series of books. As Cornwall publishes his first new Sharpe novel for fifteen years, we take the opportunity to ask him about the battle that was central to all. Over a brilliantly analytical hour, he walks us through the battlefield, in three telling scenes. Show Notes Scene One: Sunday June 18th, 11.10 am.  Napoleon orders his grand battery to start firing Scene Two: Sunday June 18th, 8.00 pm. Napoleon sends the Imperial Guard to save the battle. Scene Three: Sunday June 18th, 10.00 pm.  Wellington weeps over the casualties. Memento: A heavy cavalry sword, carried in an attack at Waterloo People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Bernard Cornwell Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Colorgraph Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1815 fits on our Timeline 

Our guest today is one of the greatest of Britons. Lady Hale was, until her retirement three years ago, the President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom – the most senior judge in the country. Peter sat down with Lady Hale at her London home for a conversation about her life, her love of history and memoir Spider Woman. After this she took him back to 1925, a pivotal year for the law and women's rights. For women, the 1920s were a progressive time. Figures like Eleanor Rathbone and Viscountess Rhonda led movements such as the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship and the Six Point Group. In 1925 three particularly important pieces of legislation passed through Parliament. Here she tells us about each of them. Lady Hale is the author of Spider Woman. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: Administration of Estates Act 1925 (Royal Assent 9 April 1925) Scene Two: Guardianship of Infants Act 1925 (Royal Assent 31 July 1925) Scene Three: Widows, Orphans and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act (Royal Assent 7 August 1925) Memento: Her mother's tennis racquet. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Lady Hale Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1925 fits on our Timeline

In this special live episode, recorded at the Buckingham Literary Festival last weekend, the award-winning writer Flora Fraser takes us to one of the most remote places in the British Isles to witness the dramatic story of how her namesake Flora Macdonald helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape after his failed attempt to take the throne from George II. Their adventure is one of the most romantic and romanticised episodes in our history, sighed over and depicted by succeeding generations seduced by Flora's bravery and charm. Flora Fraser is the author of several acclaimed works of history including Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton; Venus of Empire, The Life of Pauline Bonaparte, and The Washingtons. Her book Pretty Young Rebel, The Life of Flora MacDonald is out now in hardback. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: June 1746. The Prince comes to Flora at midnight in South Uist and asks for help.  Scene Two: September 1746. Flora is a captive on a Royal Navy warship in Leith harbour and a celebrity. Scene Three: December 1746. The ship bringing Flora South from Leith reaches London. Memento: The handsomely bound Bible in two volumes that Flora carried down to London, where she was kept a state prisoner into the following year. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Flora Fraser Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1746 fits on our Timeline  

In this episode the cultural historian Mike Jay takes Peter back to the high Victorian Age to see how a pioneering group of scholars and artists experimented with mind altering drugs. Jay labels these characters 'psychonauts'. These were daring, romantic figures like Sigmund Freud who championed cocaine as a stimulant, and William James whose experiments with nitrous oxide brought new insights into human consciousness. Others at this time used drugs more informally. One such person was Robert Louis Stevenson. Suffering from poor health in the mid-1880s he took advantage of the powerful drugs that were easily accessible. A result of this, Jay explains, is Dr Jeykill and Mr Hyde, one of the great short stories in English literature. Mike Jay is the author of Psychnauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: January 1885, Vienna - Sigmund Freud publishes his self-experiments with cocaine. Scene Two: March 31st 1885, Cambridge, Mass - William James in his study, corresponding with Benjamin Blood and Edmund Gurney about nitrous oxide. Scene Three: September 1885, Bournemouth - RL Stevenson writes Jekyll & Hyde in three days. Memento: A branded Merck vial of cocaine  People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Mike Jay Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1885 fits on our Timeline  

In this lively episode of Travels Through Time the historian Dr David Veevers takes us to the heart of the seventeenth century to visit three key locations in which the British Empire was being formed, challenged and resisted.  First, we head to the Deccan Plateau of the Indian Subcontinent to witness a dramatic stand off between the Mughal and Maratha Empires. It would set off a series of events which would eventually lead to the English East India Company acquiring a colony of its own in the region. Next, we cross continents and oceans to meet the Indigenous Kalinago of the Eastern Caribbean as they sign a treaty with the English and French. And finally, David takes us to the west coast of Africa where the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa is launched – an operation that would soon gain a monopoly over the trade in enslaved people in West Africa. These stories represent just a select few from David's brilliant new book The Great Defiance: How the World Took On the British Empire. It's a work of history that challenges our idea of the empire as one in which the British came, saw and conquered. Dr David Veevers is an award-winning historian and Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Bangor, and was formerly a Leverhulme Fellow in the School of History at Queen Mary, University of London.  Show Notes Scene One: January, 1660, Deccan. The Mughal Empire invade the emerging Maratha Empire, setting off a series of events that lead to the sack of Surat and the quest of the English East India Company to acquire a colony of its own in India. Scene Two: March, 1660, Guadeloupe. An Anglo-French delegation conclude a treaty with the Indigenous Kalinago of the Eastern Caribbean to partition the region between them. Scene Three: December, 1660, London and West Africa. The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa is launched, eventually gaining a monopoly over the trade in enslaved people in West Africa. Momemto: A silver cup that the British allege is stolen by Powhatan people. People/Social   Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: David Veevers Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1660 fits on our Timeline  

This week we head to the turbulent world of sixteenth century France to meet three fascinating queens whose lives were inextricably linked – Catherine de' Medici, Elisabeth de Valois and Mary Queen of Scots. They are the subject of our guest today, Leah Redmond Chang's, new book, Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power. 'The royal body exists to be looked at,' Hilary Mantel wrote in her essay "Royal Bodies". For a royal woman especially, this has meant that the most intimate parts of her biology have been closely observed and occasionally used to alter the course of her country's history. Whether she had started menstruating, was fertile, was able to sexually satisfy her husband or provide him with a son and heir could all be details on which massive political decisions were based. As Leah Redmond Chang shows in her wonderful new book, these details of women's lives aren't a sideshow to the main event but, in fact, central to the action. In this episode we visit 1559 to witness the unexpected and violent death of Henry II of France in a jousting competition. It was a tragic accident that would forever change the lives of his wife, Catherine de' Medici, his daughter, Elisabeth de Valois and his daughter-in-law Mary Queen of Scots. Show notes Scene One: June 30-July 10, 1559, Paris. The tragic and violent death of Henry II of France in a jousting accident after the wedding of his daughter, Elisabeth de Valois. Scene Two: Mid-July 1559, the Louvre. The Spanish Duke of Alba visits the mourning chambers of Catherine de' Medici. Scene Three: Late November, 1559, Châtelleraut. The Departure of Catherine's daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, for Spain. Momento: Henry II's faulty jousting helmet, and/or the first letter Catherine de' Medici sent to her daughter as she was on her journey to Spain to meet her husband.  People/Social   Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Leah Redmond Chang Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1559 fits on our Timeline  

The Renaissance was stirred into life by many figures of genius. In this episode Peter meets up with the art historian, Andrew Spira, to talk about three of the great masters in one of the most captivating of years. In different ways Botticelli, Perugino and Dürer were finding new stories to tell in their paintings. Spira evaluates all of this for us and he detects the emergence of something else that would be of central importance in the emerging Western society. This was a revolutionary new conception: 'the self'. Andrew Spira is the author of The Invention of the Self: Personal Identity in the Age of Art, among other works. He is also one of the esteemed tour directors at Ace Culutral Tours. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: Sandro Botticelli's Mystic Nativity Scene Two: Pietro Perugino's Resurrection Scene Three: Albrecht Dürer's Self-portrait Memento: A Dürer print People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Andrew Spira Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1500 fits on our Timeline

For this week's episode Peter headed in to Penguin's offices in London to meet Serhii Plokhy and talk to him about his new book, The Russo-Ukrainian War. They discussed how a culture of secrecy continues to define Russian society as it did before with the Soviets. They looked at the progress of the war and Putin's failed attempt to found a 'Eurasian Union'. Following this Serhii revisits the dramatic events of 1991, when he watched on as the Soviet Union collapsed in the most unexpected of ways. Serhii Plokhy has been described as 'The world's foremost historian of Ukraine' by the Financial Times. His new book, The Russo-Ukrainian War, is available in hardback now. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: August 1991. Moscow during the attempted coup Scene Two: Late August. Edmonton, Canada. The Canadian prime minister pledges to recognize Ukrainian independence Scene Three: 25 December. Mikhail Gorbachev's Resignation Address Memento: Serhii Plokhy's aeroplane ticket from 1991 People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Serhii Plokhy Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1991 fits on our Timeline

It's time to delve into our archive. In this brilliantly descriptive and entertaining episode, the award-winning writer and satirist Craig Brown takes us on a cultural tour of 1963. We discuss the Great Train Robbery, the Beatles meteoric rise to fame and the assassination of JFK. For much, much more about all this and to be the first to see the amazing new colourised photograph of the Beatles in Washington DC at their first US concert – head to our website. Show Notes: Scene One: August 1963, lingering with the robbers in their hide-out at Leatherslade Farm. Scene Two: Second half of 1963, Jane Asher's family home, Wimpole Street, to see/be Paul McCartney, living with the Ashers, at the time of the first flush of the Beatles' success. Scene Three: November 23 1963. In the Texas School Book depository with Lee Harvey Oswald as he shoots President Kennedy. Memento: Paul McCartney's handwritten lyrics for ‘Yesterday' People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Interview: Artemis Irvine Guest: Craig Brown Producer: Maria Nolan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Podcast Partner: ColorGraph Craig Brown's book One, Two, Three Four: The Beatles in Time is available now from 4th Estate books.

In this episode of Travels Through Time the classicist Honor Cargill-Martin takes Artemis on a tour of the debauched and dangerous world of Roman politics. We meet Messalina, one of the Rome's most notorious women, and follow her through the events of 48 AD that would lead to her eventual downfall and execution. For over two thousand years Messalina has been characterised as the scheming and sexually rapacious wife of Emperor Claudius. In one famous story she attends a brothel to take part in a twenty four hour sex competition. But now, in her wonderful new biography, Messalina: A Story of Empire, Slander and Adultery, Honor Cargill-Martin challenges this version of the empress's life. In particular, Honor seeks to rescue Messalina's reputation from some of the more egregiously sexist stereotypes that powerful women throughout history have often borne the brunt of. As Honor shows us in this episode, Messalina certainly wasn't a saint, but she was a serious political operator who had survived and thrived in the volatile world of the first century Roman Empire.  For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes   Scene One: Autumn 48 AD, Imperial Palace, Palatine Hill. The emperor Claudius is out of Rome. Messalina, the handsome Gaius Silius, and their friends are partying in celebration of the wine harvest. This, her enemies will argue, is actually a bigamous wedding party. Scene Two: A few days later in autumn 48 AD, From the Via Ostiensis to the Praetorian Camp. Messalina stands accused of adultery, bigamy, and treason. She tries to beg Claudius to spare her life but is blocked. The freedman Narcissus shows Claudius evidence of her adulteries before taking him to the Praetorian Camp where he executes a string of her alleged lovers. Scene Three: New Years Day 49 AD, Claudius marries Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Nero. Lucius Silanus – Messalina's daughter's fiancé, now accused of incest to clear the way for her to marry Nero – commits suicide as the morning of the wedding dawns. Memento: Nero's golden snakeskin bracelet.    People/Social   Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Honor Cargill-Martin Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 48 AD fits on our Timeline      

Today Tom Whipple, science editor of The Times, takes us back to a critical moment at the beginning of World War Two. Just a month after replacing Neville Chamberlain as prime minister, Winston Churchill learned that the Nazis were using beams to direct their bombers towards targets in Britain's industrial heartlands. The science behind these beams was so pioneering that it was difficult to believe that it was true. But, as Churchill learned at a dramatic meeting in Whitehall in June 1940, the beams were scientifically plausible. The man who told him this was an extraordinary 28-year-old physicist. His name was RV Jones. RV Jones is the central character in Tom Whipple's enthralling new book. The Battle of the Beams: The Secret Science of Radar That Turned the Tide of WW2 is out this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 21 June 1940. RV Jones attends a meeting at the cabinet room in Whitehall Scene Two: June 1940. With Flight Lieutenant Bufton/Corporal Mackie on a mission to find Jones's ‘beams' over Britain Scene Three: 6 November 1940. At the crash site of a Heinkel III bomber at Chesil Beach in Dorset Memento: Vera Cain's (RV Jones's wife) diary People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Tom Whipple Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1940 fits on our Timeline

It has been said that the past is another country, but the events we discuss in this episode feel all too familiar. Media interference in elections, Russian influence on Western politics, controversial immigration policy and the technology industry are all as close to the top of the agenda today as there were in 1924. Today Violet is joined on a tour back to 1924 by the celebrated writer Simon Winchester. Simon is one of the great literary figures of his generation. His career as a journalist and an author spans the past half century, from reports on the Troubles in Northern Ireland to pioneering works of creative non-fiction like Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. Born in Britain, in this episode he joins Violet from his home in rural Massachusetts. Simon's latest book, which has just been published, Knowing What We Know, The Transmission of Knowledge from Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic takes us from ancient Babylon to Chat GPT, analysing many of the subjects that are discussed here. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Also, if you want to have a look - here's the Sandisfield Times! Show notes Scene One: 25 October 1924, the Zinoviev Letter is published in the British press, setting Ramsay MacDonald and the Labour Party up for election disaster. Scene Two: 1924. In New York City, the creation of IBM – International Business Machines. Scene Three: 1924. In Washington, the Asian Exclusion Act passes through Congress, enshrining anti-immigration policy and racism into law. Memento: IBM ‘golf ball' font attachment for typewriter. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Simon Winchester Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1924 fits on our Timeline

England in the mid sixteenth century was filled with drama and novelty. As conspiracies played out and a new queen sought to established herself on the throne, a glamorous new technology was emerging in the fashionable world. In this fascinating episode, Rebecca Struthers, the author of Hands of Time: A Watchmaker's History of Time, takes us back to the high Elizabethan Age to tell us all about the early days of watchmaking. The stories that feature in this episode are covered in much more depth in Rebecca's acclaimed new book. Hands of Time: A Watchmaker's History of Time is published this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 1572. With Mary Queen of Scots in Sheffield Castle. Scene Two: 1572. With Queen Elizabeth I in Whitehall. Scene Three: 24/5 August 1572. Paris. St Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Memento: Queen Elizabeth's watch. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Rebecca Struthers Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Hodder & Stoughton Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1572 fits on our Timeline

In today's beautifully described episode the author and journalist Luke Turner takes us back to 1943 to present us with a refreshingly different view of World War 2. The war, Turner reminds us, was a cultural experience as well as a military contest. One feature of this cultural environment has been largely neglected by generations of scholars. This is the unusual degree of freedom some members of the British armed forces had to explore issues of sexuality and gender. The stories that feature in this episode are covered in much more depth in Luke's fascinating new book. Men at War: Loving, Lusting, Fighting, Remembering 1939-1945 is published this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 3-4 April 1943. RAF Lissett, Bridlington, East Yorkshire. Scene Two: 16 April 1943. Off the coast of North Africa with Wing Commander Ian Gleed of the RAF. Scene Three. November 1943. A couple of hundred miles north of the Allied line with Lieutenant Dan Billany. Memento: The cockpit door from Ian Gleed's hurricane. People/Social Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Luke Turner Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1943 fits on our Timeline

This week we have an extra Friday episode for you. It's with the multi-talented artist, historian and musician Dr Amy Jeffs. She takes us back to 1327, a year of high political drama when King Edward II of England was deposed by his wife, Isabella, and his teenage son, Edward III was crowned and began his fifty-year reign. Jeffs spent her university years deep in the Middle Ages, studying palaeography, Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse and Middle Welsh, alongside more traditional art history courses. Her fascination with words and images in manuscripts has led her to create two books, Storyland and Wild which explore enigmatic early Medieval stories and are beautifully illustrated with her own linocut prints, while the audiobook versions feature her songs and compositions. Wild, which is just out in paperback, explores the mysterious, riddling tales in The Exeter Book, a rare tenth century manuscript of old English literature which has been in Exeter Cathedral since 1072. In this episode Jeffs tells Violet more about all of this and together they set off for 1327 to examine the year's politics through the prism of two compelling manuscripts. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 1327. A disaster in the scriptorium. A group of manuscript makers, including a scribe and a painter, have been working on producing a book containing a series of portraits of English kings from William the Conqueror to Edward II, surmounting a poem that builds up to an exhortation for Edward II to conquer the Scots. Scene Two: A mother's gift. Sometime between 15-year-old Edward III's knighting on 31st January and his coronation on 1st Feb 1327, his mother gives him a lavishly illuminated manuscript containing a treatise on kingship. Scene Three. A funeral. Edward III's father died/was killed at Berkeley Castle, on the 21st September 1327, but his funeral did not take place until 21st October. His body was borne to Gloucester Abbey, not in state, but with a wooden effigy. Memento: Edward II's crown, as displayed on his effigy. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Dr Amy Jeffs Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1327 fits on our Timeline == Amy's linocut images can be ordered from https://www.amyjeffshistoria.com Insta: https://www.instagram.com/historia_prints/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2DrP4TiFqjZHAaWeLdQEGB

In the last decades of the fifteenth century, life in England was finally starting to settle down after years of upheaval and conflict during the Wars of the Roses which had riven society since the mid 1450s. Waves of Plague had decimated the population, causing widespread distress but providing unexpected opportunities for those who survived. The cultural and political landscape were ripe for change. This week's guest, the distinguished historian Nicholas Orme, takes us back to this time. He guides us back to 1480, a year he describes as being ‘on the cusp'. ‘It is not exactly a year of great achievement', he argues, but in England it was ‘a year of great promise.' Nicholas Orme is Emeritus Professor of History at Exeter University, he has written more than thirty books. Tudor Children, his latest, takes the reader from birth to adulthood through the themes of work, play, religion and education. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: Westminster. William Caxton's shop, where he is selling books, 80% of them in English, including his printed edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales which helps to develop the 'King's English', based on the Midlands dialect. Scene Two: Oxford. William Waynflete is opening his new grammar school, Magdalen College School, which for the first time is going to teach classical, rather than medieval, Latin and bring England into the Renaissance. Scene Three. Bristol. William Worcester is measuring and describing the streets of the city: the first ever historical survey of an English town.  Memento: Second edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales published by William Caxton. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Nicholas Orme Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1480 fits on our Timeline

This month marks 80 years since the government of Nazi Germany announced the shocking discovery of a series of mass graves in the Katyń Forest in the occupied USSR. Thus began one of the most tangled and disturbing of WW2 stories. Just what had happened? In this episode from our archive, the writer Jane Rogoyska, author of Surviving Katyń, takes us back to the year 1940 to find out. *** In April 1943 the discovery of a series of mass graves in the Katyń Forest near Smolensk in the Soviet Union ignited one of the most explosive rows of the Second World War. The identity of the victims was clear enough. They were the Polish military elite and significant figures – academics, writers, industrials, doctors - from wider Polish society. But who was responsible? The Germans instantly blamed the Soviets. The Soviets retaliated that the accusation was a ‘vile slander', intended to mask yet another instance of Nazi wickedness. In this episode the writer Jane Rogoyska takes us back to the scene of a sinister and bitterly contested crime: the Katyń Massacre. Jane Rogoyska is the author of Surviving Katyn: Stalin's Polish Massacre and the Search for Truth   As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: March 1940, Starobelsk camp, Soviet Ukraine. Bronisław Młynarski and his friends find a mysterious message tied to the collar of a stray dog. Scene Two: April 1940, Starobelsk camp. NKVD Commissar Kirshin stands on the steps of the ruined church watching the transports of men depart: ‘You are leaving,' he says, ‘for a place where I would like to go myself.' Scene Three: July 1940, Griazovets camp near Vologda in the far north of Russia. The artist Józef Czapski gives an informal lecture about Marcel Proust, delivered entirely from memory, to a group of friends lying on the grass in the sun. Memento: One of the Christmas decorations created by graphic artist Edward Manteuffel while he was a prisoner in Starobelsk camp. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Jane Rogoyska Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Colorgraph Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1940 fits on our Timeline

Today the archaeologist and executive director of World Monuments Fund, John Darlington, takes us on a dramatic trip back to the 1690s to witness a devastating earthquake in the Caribbean. Scroll down, too, for news of a special discount code. *** After its capture by the English in 1655, Port Royal, Jamaica, became a place of great significance. Home to around 6,500 people by the 1690s, it was known variously as 'the fairest town of all the English plantations' and the ‘richest and wickedest city in the New World'. Everything, though, changed on the morning of 7 June 1692 when an earthquake struck the town. Two thirds of Port Royal sunk immediately into the sea. Sand liquefied. Ships capsized and one was lifted over rooftops by the subsequent tsunami. It was a blow from which the town would never recover. Today Port Royal is a small fishing village. The ruined remains of its heyday survive under the sea.   Our guide on this dangerous journey back in time is the celebrated archaeologist John Darlington whose ‘obsession with ruinous and abandoned places' began as a baby being pushed around the ruins of Leptis Magna in his pram. Darlington currently works for the World Monuments Fund, and his new book Amongst The Ruins, Why Civilisations Collapse and Communities Disappear is published today by Yale University Press. In it, he tells the stories of lost places as diverse as ancient Assyria and twentieth century St Kilda, grouping them around five themes, before offering some ideas for how this kind of destruction can be avoided in the future. *** SPECIAL OFFER for listeners: to get 20% off John Darlington's Amongst The Ruins, Why Civilisations Collapse and Communities Disappear (just £20 with free postage and packing) head to the Yale website and enter the code RUINS . Valid from 11 April to 30 June and for UK orders only. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 6 June 1692. Merchants, slaves, pirates and priests throng the heady streets of Port Royal, where there is one alehouse for every ten people. Huge ships arrive leaden with luxuries, docking in the deep-water harbour of the town, which is built on a fragile series of coral islands. Scene Two: 7 June 1692. The Reverend Emmanuel Heath sits down with his friend John White, acting Governor of Jamaica, to enjoy a glass of wormwood wine. An earthquake strikes the city followed by a tsunami, sucking entire streets into the liquified sand, throwing ships over the collapsing buildings and ejecting corpses from graves. Scene Three: 8 June 1692. The survivors survey the hellish remains of their city, most of which has disappeared under the sea or lies in ruins. A series of aftershocks cause more destruction and death, meanwhile diseases like Cholera begin to take hold, killing thousands more in the days to come. Memento: A French pocket watch excavated from the under-sea ruins of the city, stopped at 11.40am on 7 June, the moment the earthquake struck. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: John Darlington Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Yale University Press Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1692 fits on our Timeline

‘I have so often wondered', the historian Katja Hoyer says, ‘what I would have made of the state that I was born into had I been born a few years earlier and lived through it in the way that other people did.' That state was East Germany or the German Democratic Republic (GDR). This was a nation that emerged out of the ashes of World War II and existed until the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1990. The GDR is remembered today in the West as a neurotic, oppressive nation, synonymous with its Ministry for State Security or Stasi. But in her new book Beyond The Wall, Hoyer attempts to present a fresh image. What was life really like for the citizens of the GDR, especially its youth? How did the ideals of the time impact them? Why were young leftists - among them Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn - so drawn to visit? In this revealing episode, Hoyer takes Artemis Irvine back on a trip to 1973 to find out.  Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian, journalist and. A visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she is a columnist for the Washington Post and hosts the podcast The New Germany. Her new book, Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990, is out this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 29 March 1973, the Kosmos cinema, for the premiere of the film The Legend of Paul and Paula. Scene Two: 2 July 1973, East Berlin in the Alexanderplatz, for the 10th World Festival of Youth and Students. Scene Three: 7 August 1973, the death of Walter Ulbricht, the man at the top of the GDR's political framework. Memento: A silk scarf bearing the inscripted hopes and dreams of anyone the guest may have met at the Youth Festival. People/Social Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Katja Hoyer Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1973 fits on our Timeline

In this episode we talk to the game designer David Milne about his historical work on the hugely popular real time strategy game Company of Heroes 3. Milne takes us back to the Mediterranean theatre of World War II, from Tobruk in North Africa to Anzio in Italy, as we learn how games developers faithfully evoke the past. Company of Heroes 3 is the latest instalment in the multi-million selling Company of Heroes franchise. Developed by Relic Entertainment in Vancouver, the game has been enthusiastically critically received. Gaming Trend called it ‘a masterpiece'. The reviewer for the NME described it as ‘fiercely intelligent.' To accompany the title's launch SEGA have developed a supporting content hub  called The Briefing Room. Filled with interactive maps, biographies of significant military figures and featuring analysis by leading academic authorities, it shows how faithfully SEGA have confronted the history that informs the game. Click here to explore The Briefing Room. David Milne is a senior game designer at Relic Entertainment. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: June 1942, Second Battle of Tobruk Scene Two: December 1943, Battle of Ortona Scene Three: March 1944, Anzio Beachhead Memento: As many soldiers' memoirs as he can carry People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: David Milne Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: SEGA Theme music: Anvil Main Theme, Company of Heroes Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1942 fits on our Timeline

Today the bestselling and prize-winning author Sarah Bakewell takes us back to the mid-fourteenth century. This was a time of great hardship when politics was violently fractured and when the plague was ripping across Europe. But at this singular moment in Western history two figures of genius, Petrarch and Boccaccio, started their pioneering literary work. In doing so they became, as Bakewell explains, ‘the first of the great literary humanists'. This is the starting point of Sarah Bakewell's new book, Humanly Possible, a broad and sweeping history of humanism. In this episode she takes us back to these uncertain first moments, when first Petrarch and then Boccaccio started to hunt for ancient manuscripts and to distil their learning into ambitious literary works of their own. Sarah Bakewell's new book is Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking*, Enquiry and Hope. It will be published next week. *In homage to this freethinking, we've given Sarah a little more leeway (three years instead of the usual one) than usual this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 1348. Parma.  The Black Death spreads around the Italian peninsula as well as much of the rest of Europe. The writer Francesco Petrarch, living in Parma, does not catch it, but many of his friends die, including "Laura", the woman who inspired many of his most beautiful love sonnets. Scene Two: 1349. Parma, Padua and Florence.  This first outbreak of the disease recedes (though not for long).  Driven by a pervasive sense of loss, Petrarch - now mostly living in Padua - starts gathering copies of the letters he had written to friends over the years.  Scene Three: 1350. Florence. Petrarch and Boccaccio meet. Petrarch is passing through Florence, visiting the city of his exiled family's origins for the first time in his life. Memento: A cutting from one of Petrarch experiments with one his laurel bushes. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Sarah Bakewell Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1348 fits on our Timeline

The relationship between England and India is a deep and complex one. In this episode the academic and author of Courting India, Nandini Das, takes us back to a significant moment at the very beginning of this relationship. She tells us all about Sir Thomas Roe, the courtier who led the first English embassy to India. Roe's mission was an exciting and a daunting one. Stories about the riches of India had long been exchanged in England and, when he stepped ashore in Surat in 1615, he was able to see the might of the great Mughal Empire for himself. In contrast, England was regarded by many as an island of little consequence. But, as Das explains, there was one figure that Roe was desperate to impress. This was the richest man in the world, the fourth Mughal emperor, Jahangir. In early 1616, after arriving in Ajmer, he would get his chance. Nandini Das is professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture in the English faculty at the University of Oxford. Brought up in India, she was educated at the Jadavpur University in Kolkata, before moving to England for further study. Her book, Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire is out this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 10 January 1616, Mughal imperial court (durbar), Ajmer. The first meeting between Roe and the emperor, Jahangir. Scene Two: 24 May 1616, imperial private audience chambers, Ajmer. Roe desperately clings on to his English identity and has a problem with a runaway Englishman who wants to enter Mughal service. Scene Three: 18 December 1616. In the Mughal imperial procession (lashkar) across Rajasthan, following the emperor Jahangir. Roe Memento: A miniature portrait, belonging to Thomas Roe. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Nandini Das Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1616 fits on our Timeline

In this deeply moving episode from 2020 the New York Times bestselling author Ariana Neuman told her father's extraordinary story for the very first time. Hans Neumann was a young Jewish man from Prague who managed to outwit the Nazis and survive the Holocaust. Ariana Neumann grew up in the Venezuela of the 1970s and 1980s. This was a land of possibility and progress. Her father Hans Neumann - a hugely successful industrialist and patron of the arts – epitomised both these characteristics. But while Hans was outwardly a paragon of success and strength, there were parts of his private self that were unsettling to his close family. He would wake at night screaming in a language his daughter did not understand. He hardly ever mentioned his childhood in central Europe. He never said that he was Jewish. ‘Life,' he would tell his daughter, ‘was to be lived in the present.' On his death in September 2001, Ariana discovered a box of papers and photographs that her father had left her. They became the starting point for a personal investigation into her father's European family and an unspoken history of horrific persecution and enthralling survival during the Holocaust. This episode of Travels Through Time was recorded on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. During the course of this conversation Ariana guides us back to the drama and tragedy of the year 1944: a defining year for the Neumann family of Prague. To see Hans's doll, Zdenka ring and the Jan's identity card – some of the objects discussed during the course of this conversation – please visit our website. When Time Stopped was published internationally in February 2020. It was an instant New York Times Bestseller. Show notes: Scene One: June 23 1944, Red Cross Visit to the Camp of Terezín, CZ. The place is beautified. Thousands are sent to Auschwitz to ease overcrowding and a charade is enacted to fool the International Red Cross inspectors. Scene Two: September 29/30 1944, The arrival of transport EI in Auschwitz, Poland. Scene Three: October 9 1944, Berlin Germany. Hans Neumann has been hiding in plain sight and using a fictitious identity. He receives a summons (issued October 5th) to appear in the Nazi District Court in Prague. Going back to Prague and appearing in court would, almost certainly, mean death. Memento: The sound of Otto Neumann humming the folk song Golem. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Ariana Neumann Producer: Maria Nolan

This week we tackle the fascinating and complex relationship between science and religion, in the company of the academic and writer Nicholas Spencer. Spencer takes us back to a dramatic moment of conflict that began at the end of the 1850s with the publication of Charles Darwin's On The Origin of the Species. This book ignited a fierce debate about his new theory of natural selection and of humanity's place in the world. The feud would become increasingly bitter over the year that followed. It would ultimately lead to the famous Oxford debate between T.H. Huxley (“Darwin's bulldog”) and Bishop “Soapy” Sam Wilberforce in June 1860. Spencer guides us through all this history, taking us back to meet Darwin himself. He gives us an insight into Darwin's personal life, his relationships with his wife and family and the effect losing his beloved daughter Annie had on his faith in God. Nicholas Spencer is a Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London and director of the think tank Theos, which investigates the place of faith in society. His new book is, Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science & Religion For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: Charles Darwin receiving a letter from clergyman and novelist Charles Kingsley, in November 1859, congratulating him on The Origin of Species, an advance copy of which he has just read. Scene Two: The publication of the most controversial book of the age – not On The Origin of Species but Essays and Reviews, in March 1860, igniting a passionate debate about Biblical texts. Scene Three: The famous Oxford debate between T.H. Huxley (“Darwin's bulldog”) and Bishop “Soapy” Sam Wilberforce in late June 1860. Memento: One of Charles Darwin's notebooks, written when he returned from his voyage on the Beagle, as his theory of evolution began to take shape in his mind. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Nicholas Spencer Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1859 fits on our Timeline

Nothing symbolises the might of imperial Rome like their roads. Expertly engineered and perfectly cambered, they were the arteries of the great empire through which merchants, armies and information flowed. In this episode we will follow one of those lost roads back in time to the very beginning of the Roman occupation of Britain, in the company of the writer Christopher Hadley. He takes us back to 51 AD, a turning point in the invasion, when Caratacus, King of the Catuvellauni Tribe and leader of the British resistance, was defeated and capitulated to his Roman adversaries. Christopher Hadley is a journalist and author. His acclaimed first book, Hollow Places, was a Times Book of the Year. The Road, A Story of Romans and Ways to the Past was published recently. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: Somewhere on the English/Welsh border - Caratacus' last stand. Scene Two: Somewhere in northern England - Cartumandua hands Caratacus over to the Romans. Scene Three: Somewhere in Rome - Caratacus appears before the Emperor Claudius who grants him clemency. Memento: A rare Caratacus coin. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Christopher Hadley Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 51 AD fits on our Timeline

1066 was the year that England's destiny was decided. In this superbly analysed episode, the author Don Hollway takes us back to the scenes of the three great battles that changed the course of history: Fulford, Stamford Bridge and Hastings. *** The drama of 1066 began in its very first week, with the death of the old king, Edward the Confessor, on 5 January. The following day the powerful earl Harold Godwinson was crowned in Westminster Abbey and the dynamic was set for the clash that followed. Harold's claim to the throne was famously put down to a deathbed wish from Edward. But this was complicated by an earlier promise Edward had seemingly to Duke William of Normandy. While King Harold looked nervously towards the Channel that summer, for signs of a Norman invasion, another grave threat was developing in the north. In September 1066 the news reached London that Harald ‘Hardrada' the Viking king had landed with a great army of invasion near York. The month that followed would be one of the most dramatic and decisive in English history as a trio of battles were fought in the north and south. In this episode, Don Hollway, the author of The Last Viking: The True Story of King Harald Hardrada takes us back to these three battles. While they were fought on different terrain and in different parts of the country, he points out, they all had one key point in common: the failure of a shield wall. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 20 September 1066. The Battle of Fulford, just south of York in the north of England. Scene Two: 25 September 25 1066. Stamford Bridge, east of York. Scene Three: 14 October 1066. Hastings on the south coast, or more precisely Senlac Hill, a few miles inland. Memento: Harald Hardrada's raven flag or Harold Godwinson's ‘fighting man' flag. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Don Hollway Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1066 BC fits on our Timeline

Here is another gem from our archive. In this fascinating episode the archaeologist and writer Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes takes us back further than we've ever been before, 125,000 years, to meet our extinct kindred: the Neanderthals. We visit the vibrant wild woodlands of Britain, a hornbeam forest on the European continent and a German lakeshore. Rebecca describes the world as it was in the interglacial age known as the Eemian and tell us how the Neanderthals lived, worked and loved in this warm woodland environment. The subject matter and scenes that feature in this episode come from Rebecca Wragg Sykes's new book, Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art. For much much more visit: tttpodcast.com Show Notes: Scene One: Britain, 123,000 years ago. A catastrophic flood breaks the ridge connecting Britain to the rest of Europe. The island becomes a wasteland for many thousands of years. Scene Two: A hornbeam forest in Germany, during the Eemian. We meet the weird and wonderful animals that populated the continent at the time. Scene Three: Neumark lakeshore, also during the Eemian. Tiny remains of organic material provide insight into the kinds of tools the Neanderthals were making and using. Memento: One of the spears used to kill deer at the Neumark lakeshore. People/Social Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes Producers: Maria Nolan Titles: Jon O Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Podcast Partner: ColorGraph  

In the early sixteenth century, some of the world's most famous works of art were being created, many of them in Florence and Rome. In this episode, the acclaimed art historian James Hall takes us back to 1504, just as Michelangelo was finishing his monumental statue of David, the first of its size in the modern era. His great rival, Leonardo da Vinci, also in Florence at this time, was on the committee to decide where the statue should be placed. The original idea of hoisting it hundreds of feet into the air to the top of the cathedral was sensibly shelved, and discussions got underway to find a less complicated location. For more about this episode, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. James Hall is a research Professor at Southampton University and has published widely on an eclectic range of art history subjects. His stunningly illustrated new book The Artist's Studio, A Cultural History is available now. Show notes Scene One: 1504. Michelangelo completes his monumental sculpture of David. Scene Two: 1504. Leonardo da Vinci sits on a committee to decide where to locate the marble David. He and Michelangelo bump into each other in the street and have an argument about Dante. Scene Three: 1504. Leonardo and Michelangelo are commissioned to paint large battle murals in the Great Council Hall of Florence. They are given separate workplaces but never finish the commissions. Memento: Michelangelo's bronze life-sized statue of David which disappeared sometime after 1504. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: James Hall Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1504 BC fits on our Timeline

In this episode the Guardian journalist Tania Branigan takes us back to the opening phases of the ‘Cultural Revolution', Mao Zedong's attempt to purge Chinese society of its impurities. Over the course of a few fraught months in the summer of 1966, the transformational movement that would last for a decade, begun. *** In Britain 1966 is remembered as a glittering year. It was the year of the World Cup, of Pet Sounds, Revolver and Andy Warhol. But as Western culture flowered, far away in China something very different was happening. All these years on, today's guest, Tania Branigan points out, the Cultural Revolution remains a difficult event to properly comprehend. It moved through different stages. It was riven by contradictions. Its range was vast, touching people from all parts of society, from top to bottom, east to west. And yet at the heart of much of the action lay the figure of Mao Zedong. By the mid-1960s Mao was regarded as an aging figure. Despite his glorious revolutionary past, it was not certain just what his future would be. But during the spring and summer of 1966 it became increasingly clear that Mao's political ambitions were not at an end. Tania Branigan is the author of Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China's Cultural Revolution, which has recently been released by Faber. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: April 16-24. Politburo standing committee (ie China's top political body) meets in Hangzhou. Scene Two: 16 July. Chairman Mao swims the Yangtze near Wuhan. Scene Three: 18 August. Song Binbin pins the red armband on Mao in Tiananmen Square. Memento: The first big character poster, painted in Beijing, that set off the Cultural Revolution. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Tania Branigan Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1966 fits on our Timeline

It is difficult to hear the stories of medieval women, but one voice rings down the ages, clear as a bell. Alison, the Wife of Bath, is Geoffrey Chaucer's most famous creation: irrepressible, hilarious, insightful. She is the star of The Canterbury Tales with her outrageous stories and touching honesty. An inspiration for a huge range of writers – from William Shakespeare to Margaret Atwood and Zadie Smith – she is the sparkling subject at the heart of Marion Turner's new book, The Wife of Bath: A Biography. In this episode Turner takes us back to 1397. We visit Chaucer's world in London and Oxfordshire. We hear the extraordinary story of John of Gaunt and his beloved mistress Katherine Swynford. Along the way we meet some real-life Alisons. These were women who ran businesses, travelled extensively, and lived independently, including one who was mayoress of London, not once, but twice. Marion Turner is the J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, where she is a Professorial Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. Her books include the prize-winning biography Chaucer: A European Life. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: January 1397. The English Parliament and the legitimatisation of John of Gaunt's children with Katherine Swynford. Scene Two: End of 1397. Chaucer has been gifted a new grant of a yearly ton of wine from the King. Scene Three: Summer. Margaret Stodeye heads off to St Paul's Cathedral to declare a vow of chastity. Memento: Chaucer's handwritten draft of the Canterbury Tales. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Marion Turner Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1397 fits on our Timeline  

This week we're heading back to the fourth century BC to take a look at one of the world's greatest ever philosophers. Indeed, according to today's guest, John Sellars, Aristotle may be even more than that. He might well be the single most important human ever to have lived. Aristotle's philosophical work transformed the people thought about the world around them. During his magnificent career he laid the foundation for science; he pioneered new methods for understanding drama and literature; he founded a new way of thinking about politics, and he invented formal logic. But how did Aristotle do this? How was he shaped by the intellectual culture of Ancient Greece? What did he owe to his famous forebears, Plato and Socrates? In this episode John Sellars engages with these questions as he describes the life of this hugely significant philosopher. John Sellars is a Reader in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, a Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Member of Common Room, Wolfson College, Oxford. He is the author of a sleek and stylish new short book, Aristotle: Understanding the World's Greatest Philosopher. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 347 BC. Aristotle leaves Plato's Academy after twenty years. Scene Two: 344 BC. Aristotle arrives on Lesbos and begins to study animals. Scene Three: 335 BC. Aristotle returns to Athens, founds the Lyceum and embarks on a dizzying array of philosophical work. Memento: A papyrus scroll containing one of Aristotle's lost dialogues. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: John Sellars Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 347 BC fits on our Timeline

The British Army can trace its origins back to the Acts of Union of 1707 and its rich history involves conflicts both large and small in all corners of the globe. But as the twenty-first century dawned, the organisation found itself in a transitional phase and with something of an identity crisis. What exactly was its culture? What, with its resources, could it really be expected to achieve? What was its relevance to modern Britain? Today's guest, Simon Akam, sought to confront questions like these in his book Changing the Guard: The British Army Since 9/11. Grounded in his own first-hand experience and supported by hundreds of interviews, in this episode Akam explains the conclusions that he reached and the incredible resistance he experienced as he sought to bring his book to publication. Simon Akam is a journalist and author. Born in Cambridge, he held a Gap Year Commission in the British Army before studying at the University of Oxford and Columbia Journalism School. He has worked for the New York Times, Reuters and Newsweek. Changing the Guard, published in 2021, is his first book. Show notes Scene One: A tent in Camp Bastion, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Jamie Loden edits a video. Scene Two: Autumn 2006. Downing Street with Major-General Jonathan Shaw and Nigel Sheinwald. Scene Three: 28 March 2006. The creation of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Memento: A copy of a tabloid newspaper from 2006. People/Social Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Simon Akam Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 2006 fits on our Timeline

It's midwinter, we're midway through our sixth season and we thought it was time to revisit a favourite old episode. Today we have for you a recording made at Buxton Literary Festival in 2019. It is with the Oxford professor and prize-winning historian Diarmaid MacCulloch. Our destination is the year 1536 and our subject is one of the most complex and fascinating in English political history: Thomas Cromwell. == Thomas Cromwell, a self-described “ruffian”, was King Henry VIII's chief minister in the 1530s. He was clever, driven and ruthless, qualities that have captivated novelists and historians for generations as they have attempted to capture his mysterious essence. The year 1536 saw Cromwell at the peak of his career. As chief administrator of the realm he had vast and wide-ranging powers, but he also had enemies. Prominent among these, as we hear in this episode, was the King's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Thomas Cromwell: A Life by Thomas Cromwell by Diarmaid MacCulloch is now available in paperback from Penguin. Show notes Scene One: 24 May 1536. Ambassador Eustache Chapuys and Thomas Cromwell debriefing after the execution of Anne Boleyn. Scene Two: Around 3 October 1536 when King Henry VIII was told of the Lincolnshire Rising. Scene Three: 22 December 1536. Thomas Cromwell sits in his house at the Rolls listening to the sounds of the magnificent procession of the King from Whitehall to Greenwich down Fleet Street. Memento: The keyboard that Mark Smeaton played for Anne Boleyn People Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch Recording/Live Mix: Hannah Griffiths Post production: Maria Nolan

As today's guest Tim Clayton explains, 'the late eighteenth-century mixed the extremely crude with the extremely fine in a fascinating sort of way.' The grand master of this potent concoction was the greatest political caricaturist of modern times: James Gillray. Gillray worked in raucous, restless times. He began in the wake of the American War of Independence and, having charted each twist and turn of the French Revolution, he died a short time before the Battle of Waterloo. In this time he pioneered a fearless new brand of political satire. No one was spared. He lampooned King George III; his son the Prince of W(h)ales; the prime minister William Pitt the Younger, and all the prominent cultural and political figures in London life. But how did he get away with it? What was his true motivation? How clever really was James Gillray? In this episode the historian Tim Clayton takes us back to 1792, a testing year for Gillray, to find out. The characters and stories that feature in this episode of Travels Through Time form part of Clayton's latest book. James Gillray: A Revolution in Satire is out now. Show notes Scene One: February/March 1792 London and Hannah Humphrey's house at 18 Old Bond Street. Scene Two: 21 May 1792. The Royal Proclamation against seditious writing. Scene Three: December 1792. The French King is on trial and Gillray releases his series of ‘pro bono publico' prints. Memento: A fire screen, painted on both sides by Gillray, as presented by the artist to Hannah Humphrey. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Tim Clayton Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1972 fits on our Timeline

We have our fair share of bizarre rulers in the twenty-first century, but the subject of today's episode makes Putin, Trump and Kim Jong Il seem rather tame. According to the Oxford academic and bestselling novelist Harry Sidebottom, our guide this week, the Roman Emperor Heliogabalus was the maddest and baddest of them all. Heliogabalus turned Rome upside down as he rampaged over political and religious tradition during his lust-fuelled, four-year reign, contributing to the instability and chaos of the later third century AD. In this special end of year episode, we get into the spirit of Heliogabalus by allowing Harry Sidebottom to trample on our own tradition of choosing just one year in history to travel back to. Today we visit three separate years, 218, 220 and 222 so we can hear the full extraordinary story he tells in his new book on the maddest emperor of them all. The characters and stories that feature in this episode of Travels Through Time form part of Sidebottom's latest book. The Mad Emperor: Heliogabalus and the Decadence of Rome is out now. Show notes Scene One: 1 May 218. Heliogabalus' grandmother sneaks him out of Emesa (modern day Homs) in Syria to start the revolt that will elevate him to the position of Emperor of Rome. Scene Two: Midsummer's Day 220. Heliogabalus holds a huge parade in Rome to demonstrate his new religion. Scene Three: March 222. Heliogabalus is murdered on the orders of his grandmother. Memento: Heliogabalus' horn. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Harry Sidebottom Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 218 fits on our Timeline

The rivalry between Julius Caesar and Cato the Younger is one of the most intense in political history. Both were high-ranking figures of great gifts, but their personal feud was a powerful factor in the downfall of the Roman Republic. Joining us in this episode to tell us more about Cato and Caesar's contrasting characters and the dramatic historical events they lived through is the award-winning author and Professor of Classics at Georgetown University, Josiah Osgood. Osgood takes us back to the year 46BC. Here we see Caesar at his peerless best on the battlefield and then, shortly afterwards, we analyse Cato's shocking and defiant response. The characters and stories that feature in this episode of Travels Through Time form part of Osgood's latest book. Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato's Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic is out now. Show notes Scene One: April 6, 46 BC, the Battle of Thapsus, North Africa. Scene Two: April 10, 46 BC, Utica, North Africa: Cato's suicide. Scene Three: September, 46 BC, Rome, Caesar's Egyptian triumph. Memento: The sign that was paraded through the streets of Rome during Caesar's Asia Minor Triumph with the words ‘Veni, vidi, vici'. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Josiah Osgood Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 46BC fits on our Timeline

In this episode Philip Mansel takes us inside the court of King Louis XIV at Versailles, probably the most lavish, extraordinary royal palace ever built. Versailles was a place where the fun never stopped. There were parties, plays, banquets, firework displays and concerts. Life at court was a giddy carousel of extravagance, culture, beauty, wit, sophistication and intrigue. As the decorated historian Philip Mansel tells us in this sparkling episode, Versailles was the centre of power, politics and pleasure. It was the home of the royal family and the nobility, a hotbed of conspiracy and scandal. The characters and stories that feature in this episode of Travels Through Time form part of Mansel's award-winning book, King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV. Show notes Scene One: 17 November 1700. Louis XIV presents his seventeen-year-old grandson to assembled diplomats and courtiers as Philip V King of Spain, by the will of God and the will of the nation. Scene Two: 1700. Military review of Louis XIV's guards, the special regiment of cavalry nobles whom he loved and who formed the foundation of his power. Scene Three: 1700. A procession in front of Louis at the Palace of Versailles of freed white French slaves, who had been captured by Algerian pirates in the Mediterranean. Memento: One of the magnificent books from the Royal Printing Press. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Philip Mansel Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1700 fits on our Timeline

As the English football team prepare for one of the most important games in their recent history at the Qatar World Cup, one of the nation's finest sports writers takes us back to the year Gareth Southgate's players are trying to emulate: 1966. *** England's performance in the first World Cups was underwhelming. For a nation that prided themselves on having invented the game, on successive occasions in the 1950s and early 1960s the English players were left to watch as West Germany and Brazil lifted the trophy. 1966 brought a chance to change all this. With the tournament being played at home, with a disciplined managed in Alf Ramsey and a fine crop of players including the Charlton brothers, as the summer progressed the supporters' hopes rose. Here was the opportunity to realise Ramsey's bold prediction from 1963 that England were going to win. Paul Hayward, who for many years was the Chief Sports Writer at the Daily Telegraph, takes us back to that fabled summer in English sporting history. In doing so he describes what football meant to the English, and how the English had forged a national identity around their beloved sport. Paul Hayward is the author of England Football: The Biography Show notes Scene One: Early summer 1966. England training camp at Hendon. Scene Two: 30 June 1966. The cusp of the World Cup final. Scene Three: July. Ashington, Northumberland. Jack and Bobby Charlton return to their home town after the historic victory. Memento: A vinyl pressing of Revolver signed by The Beatles People/Social Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Paul Hayward Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1966 fits on our Timeline

In this special episode the multi-award winning guitarists Slava and Leonard Grigoryan take us back into Australian history in three enchanting pieces of music. Each track features on their acclaimed album, This Is Us, which arose out of a collaborative project with the National Museum of Australia. *** Over the past two decades the Grigoryan Brothers have established themselves as among the finest Australian musicians of their generation. Several years ago, following a chance meeting at a concert in Adelaide, they were invited to begin an unusual collaboration with the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. To mark its twentieth birthday the museum invited the brothers to select a series of objects from its collections and to use them as the inspiration for a series of original compositions. The project went forward during the Covid 19 Pandemic and in 2021 the resulting album, This Is Us, was published. The music engages with a broad range of fascinating Australian histories, from ones connected with the Aboriginal and Torres Islander Strait peoples, to the cricketing feats of Donald Bradman, and those of the nineteenth-century astronomers who first scoured the southern skies. In a departure from our usual format, we did not ask Slava and Leonard to pick one calendar year. Instead we invited them to play three songs and to tell us about the objects that inspired them.  This Is Us by the Grigoryan Brothers is streaming now. Read more about the project at the National Museum of Australia's website. Show notes Song One: ‘Love Token' – inspired by the convicts' love tokens. Song Two: ‘Stolen' – inspired by a gate salvaged from a children's home. Song Three: ‘Fortunate Wind' – inspired by an anchor belonging to HMS Investigator Years: c.1932 / 1950s. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Production: Matt Hiley in Sydney / Maria Nolan in London Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_

This week, the performer and author Elizabeth Wilson speaks to Artemis from the offices of Yale University Press in Bedford Square. Elizabeth tells us about the early life of a remarkable pianist, Maria Yudina, who rose to fame in Stalin's Russia. Maria Yudina was born in 1899 to a Jewish family in Nevel, a small town which now sits close to Russia's border with Belarus. Legend has it that Maria was Stalin's favourite pianist. Those who have seen Armando Iannucci's satirical film The Death of Stalin may remember the opening scene in which a pianist is forced to repeat her live performance so that a recording can be made of it and sent to Stalin. As Elizabeth explains in her new biography of the musician, Playing with Fire, the provenance of this story and whether it is about Maria is unclear. However, there is no shortage of fascinating and true stories about Maria, as Elizabeth shows us in this conversation. Maria came of age as the February revolution broke out in St Petersburg, where she was studying music. She took part briefly – even accidentally firing a rifle through a ceiling – before being questioned by a teacher from the conservatoire where she was studying. For most of her life though, Maria wasn't a revolutionary but an intellectual. Her social circle was made up of the leading figures of Russia's intelligentsia, including Boris Pasternak, Pavel Florensky, and Mikhail Bakhtin.  In this episode we visit Maria in 1921, the year she graduated from the conservatoire and was appointed as a member of staff aged just 21. It was also a year in which the relationship between Russia's new revolutionary state and the country's artists and intellectuals felt uneasy and, at times, destructive.    Show notes: Scene One: Maria's graduation ceremony. Scene Two: Maria's debut performance in Petrograd, which coincides with the poet Alexander Blok's death and funeral.  Scene Three: The end of the civil war and the introduction of NEP. Memento: A chess set which shows pieces representing 2 sides of the Russian Civil War.   People/Social Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Elizabeth Wilson Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1921 fits on our Timeline

On 2 November 1967 Winnie Ewing shocked the political establishment when she won the Scottish seat of Hamilton for the Scottish National Party. As today's guest, Professor Murray Pittock explains, so began a month that would radically re-shape modern British politics. *** For British politics the 1960s was a testing time. While the country experienced its fabled cultural flowering, it simultaneously had to come to terms with its reduced place in the world. Decolonisation was going ahead at pace. Sterling was losing its power as a currency. In geo-politics Britain did not know where to turn: to the United States, or towards Europe and the EEC. In this episode Murray Pittock shows how Britain was forced to confront all of these issues within the space of one single month. November 1967 opened with a political shock, when the young politician Winnie Ewing won a bi-election for the Scottish National Party. During her campaign she made use of a gripping slogan: ‘Stop the World: Scotland Wants to Get On.' Here was an early sign of something to come. And as the SNP rose north of the border, more trouble was simmering to the south in Westminster. Soon the Chancellor of the Exchequer, James Callaghan, would be obliged to resign. And in Europe, too, Charles de Gaulle was poised to make matters still worse. Professor Murray Pittock is one of Scotland's foremost living historians. He is the Bradley Chair at the University of Glasgow, where he is also Pro-Vice Principal. He is the author of many books, the most recent of which is Scotland: The Global History: 1603 to the Present. Show notes Scene One: 2 November 1967: Winnie Ewing wins the Hamilton by-election a total surprise, with the victory slogan ‘Stop the World: Scotland wants to get on'. Scene Two: 18 November 1967: sterling devalued against the US $ by 14%; Chancellor of the Exchequer resigns. Scene Three: 27 November 1967: UK application to join EEC vetoed for a second time by de Gaulle. Memento: $1 Silver Certificate banknote People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Professor Murray Pittock Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1967 fits on our Timeline

This week the Roman historian and archaeologist Jane Draycott takes us to meet one of history's most glamorous and infamous couples, Antony and Cleopatra.  We join them in a crucial year in the history of Ancient Rome, around 31/30 BCE, when the Roman republic fell away and Octavian – later Emperor Augustus – seized power and founded the Roman Empire, with disastrous consequences for Antony, Cleopatra and their children. This dramatic piece of history forms the origin story of Cleopatra Selene, Antony and Cleopatra's only daughter and the subject of Jane's fascinating new book, Cleopatra's Daughter: Egyptian Princess, Roman Prisoner, African Queen. In this episode we explore the years leading up to the Battle of Actium as well as the battle itself and Antony and Cleopatra's subsequent suicides. We unravel the truth behind some of the most famous stories about the couple, and explore the nature of female political power in the ancient world.    Show notes Scene One: 2nd September 31 BCE. The Battle of Actium. Scene Two: 1st August 30 BCE. Octavian captures Alexandria and the suicide of Mark Antony.  Scene Three: 10th August 30 BCE. The suicide of Cleopatra.  Momento: Cleopatra's long-lost mausoleum.   People/Social Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Jane Draycott Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 31/30 BCE fits on our Timeline

This Remembrance Week the best-selling historian James Holland takes us back to a crucial year in the Second World War. We travel to Gold Beach on D-Day and then into the country lanes of Normandy on the trail of the Sherwood Rangers. * On the damp and blustery morning of 6 June 1944 the Sherwood Rangers fought their way onto Gold Beach. An armoured regiment, filled with Sherman tanks, the Sherwood Rangers had already had an exhausting war. From Palestine to North Africa, the young men in its ranks had been involved in much bitter fighting. Now, as D-Day began, the regiment began its bloodiest campaign yet. This week's guest, James Holland, takes us back to that time. He tells us about some of the Sherwood Rangers' memorable individuals – men like the charismatic Stanley Christopherson and the awe-inspiring John Semken. He explains the dilemma that confronted the Rangers as they tried to establish a beachhead on D-Day and he takes us back to a moment of huge personal bravery several weeks later as the Battle for Normandy played out. Last of all, we see the Rangers on Christmas Day – exhausted, depleted but still with their humour and humanity. The stories that feature in this week's episode come from James Holland's latest book. Brothers in Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment's Bloody War from D-Day to VE-Day . Show notes Scene One: Tuesday, 6 June - Gold Beach, Normandy Scene Two: Monday, 26 June - Rauray Ridge, Normandy Scene Three: Monday, 25 December - Schinnen, Netherlands Memento: Sgt. George Dring's tank Akilla People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: James Holland Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1944 fits on our Timeline

As 1945 began the greatest conflict in human history was drawing to a close. But with the war in the west almost over, a new question was increasingly being asked. It was one to which Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt all had different answers. What was going to happen next? In this episode the million-copy bestselling author Giles Milton takes us back to some key moments in 1945. At Yalta on the Crimean peninsula and later in the ruins of Berlin, the shape of the post war world – the world we know today – was beginning to take shape. What is clear now was not so then. Were the Allies really friends or were, as Anthony Eden worried, they hurtling towards a third world war? Arriving in Berlin at the start of July 1945, the US army colonel Frank Howley feared much the same. As Milton explains, it was Howley who saw before almost anyone else that the Germans had ceased to be enemies and the Russians had ceased to be friends. The characters and stories that feature in this episode of Travels Through Time form part of Milton's latest book. Checkmate in Berlin: The Cold War Showdown That Shaped the Modern World. Show notes Scene One: 4 February 1945. Yalta. Opening of the Crimea Conference Scene Two: 2 May 1945. Berlin. Yevgeny Khaldei takes a photograph of the Soviet flag being raised over the Reichstag Scene Three: 1 July 1945. Berlin. Colonel Howley arrives Memento: A little of the Schliemann Gold People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Giles Milton Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1945 fits on our Timeline

Walking around a cathedral today can be a solemn and an awe-inspiring experience, but what if we could stand inside the same building and travel back 800 years or so? In this episode we do exactly that. Our guide is Dr Emma J. Wells, a historian, broadcaster and author of Heaven on Earth: The Lives and Legacies of the World's Greatest Cathedrals. In this beautifully illustrated book, Emma visits sixteen world-renowned cathedrals ranging from Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, to the “northern powerhouse” of York Minster. She describes their origins, the striking and unusual stories attached to them and the people central to their history.  In this episode, Emma takes me to the high medieval period, when European architecture was falling in love with the gothic style and cathedral-building was at its height.  Dr Emma J. Wells's new book Heaven on Earth is out now from Head of Zeus.  Show notes Scene One: Canterbury cathedral, trinity chapel, the scene of St Thomas Becket's elevation and translation into his new shrine. Scene Two: Salisbury, the ceremonial laying of the first five foundation stones of the new cathedral after its move from Old Sarum.   Scene Three: Chartres, France, William me Breton described the growing cathedral's vaults as bringing to ‘look like the shell of a tortoise' referring to the higher vaults and a longer and wider nave than any other in Christendom. Memento: To restore the “super-shrine” of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. People/Social Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Dr Emma J. Wells Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1220 fits on our Timeline

In the final sentence of A People's Tragedy, his multi-award winning study of the Russian Revolution, Orlando Figes wrote ominously that, ‘the ghosts of 1917 have not been laid to rest.' This year, as Russia's brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has played out, we have been able to glimpse some of these ghosts: fear, paranoia, grievance. All these emotions have arisen out of a long, complicated and contested history that Figes has attempted to explain for a Western readership in his illuminating new book: The Story of Russia. In this episode we talk about Vladimir Putin's use and misuse of history today and we look back to a particularly significant year in Russia's past. 1917 brought revolution to Russia. ‘It is hard to think of an event, or series of events, that has affected the history of the past one hundred years more profoundly', Figes writes. The Russian Revolution is an event that began in Petrograd (St Petersburg) in Feburary 1917 and thereafter was driven forward by Vladimir Lenin's singular character. We scruitinise this event, as ever, in three telling scenes. Orlando Figes's The Story of Russia is out now from Bloomsbury. Show notes Scene One: March 1917. Tauride Palace in Petrograd (St Petersburg). Scene Two: 3-4 July 1917. Kshesinskaya Mansion in Petrograd. Scene Three: 25 October 1917. Smolnyi Institute in Petrograd. Memento: Grand Duke Michael's abdication manifesto People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Orlando Figes Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1917 fits on our Timeline

Having watched the second Elizabethan era draw to a close in recent weeks, it is fitting that in this episode we are going back to the beginning of the first Elizabethan era – the moment when Mary Tudor died leaving the throne to her younger half-sister. These two queens, the first women to rule England in their own right, were divided by their faith. The greatest challenge facing Elizabeth on her accession was to unite a country which was polarised by religion, having passed from hard-line Protestantism under Edward VI back to Catholicism with Mary. Our learned guide on this journey is Dr Lucy Wooding whose masterful new book, Tudor England, gives a rich, detailed vision of the period. Wooding's book is not simply limited to the big political moments but takes the reader right into the lives of ordinary people as well. Dr Lucy Wooding is Langford Fellow and Tutor in History at Lincoln College, Oxford. She is an expert on Reformation England, its politics, religion and culture, and the author of Henry VIII. Tudor England by Lucy Wooding is out now. Show notes Scene One: 17 November 1558, London. In the early morning, Mary I lies dying at St James's Palace. By evening, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Reginald Pole, has also died – a momentous day for Catholicism in England. Scene Two: November 1558, a few days earlier. Princess Elizabeth is at a dinner party at Brocket Hall, with the Count of Feria who has been sent by Philip II (Mary's husband) to sound out the heir to the throne. He concludes that she is, ‘'She is a very vain and clever woman', who is, ‘determined to be governed by no one'. Scene Three: Late 1557, The Works of Sir Thomas More, sometime Lord Chauncellor, wrytten by him in the Englysh tonge are published by the printer William Rastell, who was also More's nephew. Memento: The reliquary known as the ‘Tablet de Bourbon', made by one of the great Parisian goldsmiths and acquired as part of a ransom during the Hundred Years War. Worn by Mary I in the portrait by Hans Eworth. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Dr Lucy Wooding Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1558 fits on our Timeline

This week we are off to see some of the Renaissance masters at work with the acclaimed novelist Damian Dibben. * In the early years of the sixteenth century Venice was not only a place of great power it was a site of huge cultural splendour. In particular a new generation of artists were animating the buildings like never before. And unlike many of the other Renaissance painters, the Venetians were not solely obsessed by line and form; they were equally interested in the allure and possibility of colour.  In this episode (with a short detour to the Sistine Chapel) we set our gaze on a place that is still affectionately known as the Queen of the Adriatic. In doing so we look at two of its great artists as they work with their cobalts and ultramarines. One of them, Titian, is well known to us. The other, Giorgione, or ‘Big George', is a more elusive character. Only a small number of Giorgione's paintings survive today, but they convey his strange and brilliant originality. Art historians have spent centuries trying to make sense of his enigmatic depictions, which are suffused with a misty light that seems to have drifted straight off the lagoon. Damian Dibben's novels have been translated into twenty-seven languages and published in over forty countries. His series The History Keepers was an international publishing phenomenon. His new book is The Colour Storm. Show notes Scene One: 1510. Titian, the 22 year old Venetian painter paints his 'Man with a Quilted Sleeve. Scene Two: 1510. Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. This was an incredible feat of artistic brilliance and physical endurance, achieved by a someone who was a true genius but personally difficult and far from pleasant. Scene Three: October 1510. The death of Giorgione. One of the greatest painters, a vital link in the history of art who would have produced stunning masterpieces had he not died at 33, probably of plague. Memento: Giorgione's painting of a knight and his squire, or groom, c.1507 People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Damian Dibben Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token' from the album ‘This Is Us' By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1510 fits on our Timeline