History Book Club

By Oliver Webb-CarterNews Arts Books Politics History

History Book Club episodes

June 03, 2025 Film Club: The Report (2019)
Part two of May’s Film club double bill is The Report, Scott Z. Burn’s movie on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into the CIA’s torture program, so sit back and enjoy Roger Tim and I discussing The Report.
Links
Ollie on X
Tim on X
Roger on X
Latest Issue out - Annual Subscription to Aspects of History Magazine only $9.99/£9.99
Aspects of History on Instagram
Get in touch: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
35 min
May 30, 2025 The SAS & Paddy Mayne with Damien Lewis
In April 1945, during Operation Howard in enemy occupied territory, troops of the SAS were ambushed by German Panzerfausts. Several were pinned down and they suffered heavy losses. Along came Paddy Mayne who, in an act of suicidal bravery, drove along an open road to reach his men, all the while giving and taking fire. HE collected wounded, returned to safety before again heading out to retrieve more of his men.
For this action, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery recommended Mayne for the Victoria Cross, however the award never came. Now, many years later, Damien Lewis and others are at the forefront of a campaign to have the decision reviewed. Damien is a historian and author of SAS Great Escapes Four and he joins me to discuss the non award, and SAS stories and ethos.
Damien Lewis Links
SAS Great Escapes Four
Aspects of History Links
Latest Issue out - Annual Subscription to Aspects of History Magazine only $9.99/£9.99
Ollie on X
Aspects of History on Instagram
Get in touch: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
42 min
May 27, 2025 Film Club: Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Film Club for May is Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow’s controversial film of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Next week it’s The Report, on the CIA’s torture program but sit back and enjoy Roger Tim and me on discussing Zero Dark Thirty.
Links
Ollie on X
Tim on X
Roger on X
Latest Issue out - Annual Subscription to Aspects of History Magazine only $9.99/£9.99
Aspects of History on Instagram
Get in touch: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
41 min
May 23, 2025 The Korean War with Robert Lyman
Early in the morning of 25th June 1950 the Korean People’s Army – the North Koreans – crossed the 38th parallel and the Korean War had begun. It was a particularly brutal conflict, with up to 3 million civilian deaths, a million South Koreans and 1.5million North Koreans left dead.
But why did it begin, and why, after the near cataclysmic invasion had been repulsed, did the Americans overreach thus bringing China into the war?
Historian Rob Lyman joins to discuss this forgotten confrontation, one that began less than five years after the end of the Second World War. Rob is the author, along with the former head of the British Army Richard Dannatt, of Korea: War without end.
General Lord Dannatt & Robert Lyman Links
Korea: War Without End
Robert Lyman on X/Twitter
Ollie Links
Ollie on X/Twitter
Contact Ollie: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
56 min
May 20, 2025 Test Cricket with Tim Wigmore
On 15 March 1877 play began between England and Australia in Melbourne. So began an extraordinary tradition of the finest form of sport: the Test Match. An incredible innovation that involved two teams playing cricket for up to nine days in one case, it is unique in sporting contests. However Test Cricket is bound up by Empire, class and race. Great teams have been barred from competing, and there have been moments of high controversy including Bodyline and the D ’Oliveira Affair. One thing remains constant: the England batting collapse.
Joining today is cricket writer Tim Wigmore, journalist at the Telegraph and author of a wonderful new book, Test Cricket: A History. He joins to discuss all the above and more.
Tim Wigmore Links
Test Cricket: A History
Aspects of History Links
Ollie on X
Aspects of History on Instagram
Get in touch: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
45 min
May 16, 2025 D-Day: Sword Beach with Max Hastings
On 6th June 1944 the British 3rd Division landed on Sword Beach, Normandy, as they joined Canadian, American and other allied troops in the liberation of Europe. Progress was not easy for the British troops as they suffered heavy losses, and the objective of the vital city of Caen on day 1 was not achieved.
But what of the experience of the soldiers on that day? Max Hastings joins to discuss his new book Sword, which features many accounts of men on the ground to create a wonderfully realistic picture of the allied invasion.
Max Hastings Links
Sword: D-Day – Trial by Battle
Aspects of History Links
Ollie on X
Aspects of History on Instagram
Get in touch: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
44 min
May 13, 2025 The Big Little War with James Dunford Wood
In early May of 1941, in the deserts of Iraq that had seen the armies of Alexander battle Darius, a force of 9000 Arabs and Iraqis descended on the small British airfield of Habbinayah. Only 39 pilots and a small collection of antiquated and obsolete aircraft stood between British maintenance of crucial oilfields, and their loss and consequent disaster for fuel supplies to the British Army and the Royal Navy in Egypt and throughout the Mediterranean.
Joining today is James Dunford Wood who describes the extraordinary story of defiance and heroism that he has described as a Second World War Rorke’s Drift.
James Dunford Wood Links
The Big Little War: A World War II Epic
The War Diaries of Colin Dunford Wood
Aspects of History Links
Latest Issue out - Annual Subscription to Aspects of History Magazine only $9.99/£9.99
Ollie on X
Aspects of History on Instagram
Get in touch: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
46 min
May 09, 2025 Victory 1945 with Al Murray
At 1830 hours on 4th May 1945, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery accepted the unconditional surrender of German forces in northwestern Europe from Admiral Hans Georg von Friedeberg. This was one of a number of surrenders that took place across the European theatre of World War Two. Months later Japan surrendered with a radio statement that has since become a satirical masterpiece.
Al Murray joins to discuss these and more as we delve into whether Monty won the surrenders, and did the Americans have no option but to drop those two atomic bombs?
Al Murray Links
Victory '45: The End of the War in Eight Surrenders
Aspects of History Links
Latest Issue out - Annual Subscription to Aspects of History Magazine only $9.99/£9.99
Ollie on X
Aspects of History on Instagram
Get in touch: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
49 min
May 06, 2025 Women of the Troubles with Martin Dillon
On the afternoon of 6 March 1988 in Gibraltar on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsular, Mairead Farrell and two other Provisional IRA volunteers of were shot dead by members of the Special Air Service. The three were on an operation to target one of the last outposts of the British Empire, but their movements were known to the security services. Farrell was one of a small number of female IRA members in an organisation dominated by men.
How were mothers, wives, daughters and sisters impacted by the violence over 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland? And how do they deal with the trauma 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement?
Joining today is the acclaimed journalist and writer Martin Dillon, author of The Dirty War, The Shankill Butchers and Stone Cold, as well as his most recent, The Sorrow and the Loss: The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women.
Martin Dillon Links
The Sorrow and the Loss: The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women
The Dirty War
The Shankill Butchers: A Case Study of Mass Murder
Stone Cold
Martin Dillon
Aspects of History Links
Latest Issue out - Annual Subscription to Aspects of History Magazine only $9.99/£9.99
Ollie on X
Aspects of History on Instagram
Get in touch: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
54 min
May 02, 2025 Bose & Post War Empires with Phil Craig
At the end of the Second World War Asian colonies were desperate for independence: India, Burma, Indochina, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies all boasted independence movements that now demanded autonomy. But was Britain, which had fought a costly war against fascism and domination and won, willing to grant self-government to its former colonies? And what of France and the Netherlands, and the characters involved including Subhas Chandra Bose.
Joining today is historian Phil Craig, author of 1945: The Reckoning, as we explore figures such as Chandra Bhose and General Kodendera Thimayya, or Thimmy for short, and the way Britain and her allies dealt with independence.
Phil Craig Links
1945: The Reckoning: War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World
Aspects of History Links
Latest Issue out - Annual Subscription to Aspects of History Magazine only $9.99/£9.99
Ollie on X
Aspects of History on Instagram
Get in touch: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
48 min

About History Book Club

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to the History Book Club - the club for all lovers of history, presented by writer and historian Oliver Webb-Carter. Oliver interviews authors of the best historical writing, to draw out the stories that you'll be interested in.