Coastal Stories

When two middle aged men who ran a care home for aged clerics and a string of church organ shops went missing in 1975 it opened up a wild tale of fraud that drew in bishops, blackmail, a TV quiz show accompanist, racing cars, a psychic from Orpington, some non-existent church organs, the occult, Julie Andrews and 232 nights camped out on a tiny, remote Scottish island in the depths of winter. 

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Rhyl, 1880. A young man stands on the shore about to resume a voyage he hopes will change his life and the world of seafaring forever. The sea might have other ideas. 

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Come and see Charlie interviewing Bobby Gillespie:
https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/bobby-gillespie-tenement-kid

110 years ago today, on 22nd April 1912, a week after the Titanic sank, Denys Corbett Wilson became the first person to fly between Britain and Ireland.

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He'd once roamed the Pacific but for a finback whale called Eric his final journey would be in a glass case, towed by a lorry from Southend to Morecambe. 

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Coastal Stories is back bigger*, better** and brinier*** than ever. 

* the same
** the same
*** the same

A special edition in memory of Toby Carr, whom I met through his project to kayak the shipping forecast areas and who died on 10th January. I've paid a brief tribute to Toby, including how he was remembered by the shipping forecast itself on the day he died, then revisited an old episode about the forecast. He was a lovely man who'll be greatly missed.

Toby's story: https://www.m-b-g-l.org/my-story

Toby's social media contains plenty of pics and footage from his kayak odyssey:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KayakForecast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moderatebecominggoodlater/


Coastal Stories Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodcastCoastal
Coastal Stories Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoastalStoriesPod

200 years ago this week, on 23rd December 1821, the occupants of the lighthouse at the end of the eerie shingle spit of Dungeness experienced something they would never forget. 

Buy Coastal Stories a Christmas sherry here:
https://ko-fi.com/coastalstories

Charlie stands on a blustery beach and talks for a bit. 

Vanishing Postcards:
https://www.vanishingpostcards.com/

Sea Fever: A British Maritime Miscellany:
https://amzn.to/3BYW4ps

Buy Coastal Stories a pint:
https://ko-fi.com/coastalstories

In the spring of 1777 Britain held its breath as the mysterious, terrifying 'John the Painter' embarked on a campaign to burn England's naval dockyards to the ground, one by one. If he hadn't been such a frankly rubbish arsonist Britain's maritime power could have been all but wiped out and history taken a very different course indeed. 

Come and see Charlie telling Coastal Stories in Canterbury:
https://www.waterstones.com/events/the-channel/canterbury-rose-lane

Buy Coastal Stories a pint, if you like:
https://ko-fi.com/coastalstories

Coastal Stories on Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/PodcastCoastal

Most of these stories have some kind of happy ending. An epiphany, even. But that's nothing like the whole story of the sea. This week we recall some tiny tragedies; individuals taken by the sea then washed up on the shore. The claimed, the missed, the loved, the forgotten, a tiny sample of the sea's ruthless legacy of untold stories. 

Come and hear Charlie telling some coastal stories live:
https://www.waterstones.com/events/the-channel/canterbury-rose-lane

Buy the podcast a pint:
https://ko-fi.com/coastalstories

Coastal Stories on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/PodcastCoastal