Described by her enemies as a "goggle eyed whore",Anne Boleyn was the first English queen to be publicly executed. Five hundred years after her death, her tragic tale is still the subject of historians and the inspiration for films. Out of all of Henry VIII's wives, Anne is the without doubt the most famous, and most enigmatic. Join Donna and Tom as they talk about her life. 

Music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter. 

Our website is gallusgirlsandwaywardwomen.weebly.com, and you can find us on Twitter @gallusgirlstory

Anne Boleyn was the first English queen to be publicly executed. Five hundred years after her death, her tragic tale is still the subject of historians and the inspiration for films. Out of all of Henry VIII's wives, Anne is the without doubt the most famous, and most enigmatic. Join Donna and Tom as they talk about her life. 

Music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter. 

Our website is gallusgirlsandwaywardwomen.weebly.com, and you can find us on Twitter @gallusgirlstory

Enid Blyton's books were the height of escapism for children. She told stories of youngsters who were free to roam around unsupervised; children whose parents were conveniently absent, allowing them to explore the dens of smugglers, kidnappers and no-good Johnny-foreigners – who the plucky children would always outsmart and deliver into the hands of the local, bungling police, before going home to sardine sandwiches and of course... lashings of ginger beer... ripping!

She wrote almost 800 books in her lifetime, including the Famous Five series, the Noddy books and The Faraway Tree series. Her books have been best sellers since the 1930s, selling over 600 million copies to date, despite becoming increasingly controversial from the 1950s onwards. Join us as we have a nosy into her life!

Lydia Thompson is one of the legends of the music hall and considered by many to be THE original Queen of Burlesque. Lydia and her chorus line, The British Blondes, electrified the stages of British Victorian Muisc Halls and introduced Burlesque to American audiences with their bawdy and sensational extravaganzas and they went on to become household names throughout America as the embodiment of saucy glamour. They brought natural female sexuality into direct conflict with the conventional view of what it meant to be a “true woman” in the Victorian era. The Blondes popularity allowed them to subvert class divisions and introduce a lowbrow brand of entertainment to highbrow audiences, blurring the lines that separated sex and entertainment by class and gender...

Fanny Cradock was one of the first tv chefs, terrifying viewers and employees alike from the fifties until the 1990s. Her on and off-screen shenanigans were the stuff of nightmares and she is still (in)famous over twenty years after her death. Join Donna and Tom as they talk about her life.

Music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter. 

Our website is gallusgirlsandwaywardwomen.weebly.com, and you can find us on Twitter @gallusgirlstory

Donna and Tom discuss the Victiorian poet, Christina Rossetti. A member of the remarkable Rossetti family (her brother was the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) her most famous poem is probably "Goblin Market", which is still in print today. She spent much of her life unhappy, in emotional turmoil, wrestling with her personal demons, but always creating prolific amounts of poetry. As poets (especially women poets) of the Victorian era go, her name is one of the most well known.

Music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter. 

Our website is gallusgirlsandwaywardwomen.weebly.com, and you can find us on Twitter @gallusgirlstory

Welcome to Episode 8! Here we will talk about Catalina, or Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand, the King and Queen of Spain. Betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales, from the age of 4, Catherine's fate would involve widowhood after only a few months of marriage and eventual marriage to Arthur's younger brother Henry, the future King of England. Unfortunately, she became victim of Henry VIII's inability to produce a male heir, and her subsequent downfall was inevitable. A fervent Catholic, her refusal to agree to an annulment of their marriage so he could marry Anne Boleyn, eventually led to Henry's break with Rome and the Pope, and the creation of the Church of England.

Music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter. 

Our website is gallusgirlsandwaywardwomen.weebly.com, and you can find us on Twitter @gallusgirlstory

Welcome to episode 7 of the show. Here, we talk about Elizabeth Ponsonby, one of the main characters of the so called Bright Young People of the Roaring 1920s. As the Jazz Age exploded, a set of young socialites issued in a short-lived era of 24 hour partying, drinking, drug-taking and gilded fun. This group of aristocrats, adventurers and bohemian artists lived large and provided the tabloid press of the day with a stream of outrageous gossip and photographs and fabricated "youth culture." But, as the second world war loomed, reality set in for most of these people, with Elizabeth being a notable exception.

Music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter. 

Our website is gallusgirlsandwaywardwomen.weebly.com, and you can find us on Twitter @gallusgirlstory

Donna and Tom delve into the life of Mary Somerville, described in the 19th century as "The Queen of Science". Among other things they discuss nocturnal, covert algebra, the little Fife town of Burntisland, Beyoncé, and the normality of first cousins marrying each other. It's all good.

Music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter. 

Our website is gallusgirlsandwaywardwomen.weebly.com, and you can find us on Twitter @gallusgirlstory

This year is the centenary of Muriel Spark's birth. Join Donna and Tom as they talk about the life of one of the 20th century's greatest writers and the creator of one of literature's most iconic characters - Miss Jean Brodie.

Excerpt is from "Appointment in Arezzo: A Friendship with Muriel Spark" by Alan Taylor. Music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter. 

Our website is gallusgirlsandwaywardwomen.weebly.com, and you can find us on Twitter @gallusgirlstory