History Book Club

By Oliver Webb-CarterNews Arts Books Politics History

History Book Club episodes

July 08, 2025 Summer Reads with The Gang
This week three writers join to talk summer reading recommendations from the world of history and historical fiction.
Books
The Spy in the Archive
Sceptred Isle
Rain of Ruin
Test Cricket: A History
The Pretender
Korea
The CIA Book Club
Lest We Forget
1945 The Reckoning
On Democracy & Death Cults
Last Days of Budapest
The Sorrow & the Loss
These Wicked Devices
March Violets - Bernie Gunther
The Good Soldier Svejk
A Good Man in Africa
Guests
Ollie on X
Aspects of History on Instagram
Get in touch: [email protected]
Antonia Senior - Historical Fiction Reviewer The Times
Roger Moorhouse - Historian
Richard Foreman - Author and Publisher

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1 hr 32 min
July 04, 2025 Hiroshima with Iain MacGregor
On 6 August 1945 the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, approached Hiroshima and opened up its bomb doors. Once its payload dropped, the city was engulfed with blinding light and a huge explosion produced a giant mushroom cloud. When the attack was over and after the Enola Gay had returned to its airbase on the North Mariana islands, around 100,000 Japanese residents of Hiroshima were killed, and humanity had entered a new phase of warfare.
Joining today is Iain MacGregor, author of The Hiroshima Men as we discuss the people involved and the thinking that led to this moment.
Iain MacGregor Links
The Hiroshima Men
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]

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51 min
June 27, 2025 Horace with Peter Stothard
Horace, born Quintus Horatius Flaccus in 65 BCE in Venusia, was one of ancient Rome’s most celebrated lyric poets. He lived through the turbulent transition from Republic to Empire and became closely associated with Emperor Augustus’s regime. Though he once fought on the losing side at the Battle of Philippi against Caesar, he later gained favour through the patronage of Maecenas, a key advisor to Augustus.
Horace is best known for his Odes, Satires, Epistles, and the Ars Poetica—works that blend wit, philosophical reflection, and poetic elegance, and so naturally he is a perfect subject for Peter Stothard, historian and author.
Looking for something to do at the end of June? You could do worse than head to the Chalke History Festival.
Peter Stothard Links
Horace: Poet on a Volcano
Chalke
Chalke History Festival
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]

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51 min
June 24, 2025 Film Club: Apocalypto (2006)
Latest film club is the Maya epic from Mel Gibson. With a cast of unknowns, it put the civilisation overshadowed by the Aztecs back on the map.
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]

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57 min
June 23, 2025 True Crime in WW2 London: Episode 3 - The Yanks are Here with Mark Ellis
The accepted story of the Home Front during the Second World War is one of cooperation and teamwork as people across Britain linked arms to provide support for the war effort, right? Wrong. Crime rates actually increased during the war years.
Think foreign gangs roaming through London is a recent phenomenon? Think again as Maltese and Italians cornered the organised crime world. And what about the Black Market? Well, business was booming.
As gangster Mad ‘Frankie’ Fraser later said, ‘I’ll never forgive Hitler for surrendering, we were making so much money!’
And what about the Americans? Healthy appetites, charm, good looks and money were not the only thing they brought with them. Also racial segregation and a veritable army of criminals.Bestselling crime novelist Mark Ellis, author of the DCI Frank Merlin series, is interviewed about the criminal underworld during World War Two.
Mark Ellis is a thriller writer from Swansea and a former barrister and entrepreneur. He is the creator of DCI Frank Merlin, an Anglo-Spanish police detective operating in World War 2 London.
Mark Ellis Links
⁠Boom Time: True Crime in WW2 London⁠
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]

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45 min
June 23, 2025 True Crime in WW2 London: Episode 2 - Gangs of London with Mark Ellis
The accepted story of the Home Front during the Second World War is one of cooperation and teamwork as people across Britain linked arms to provide support for the war effort, right? Wrong.
Crime rates actually increased during the war years.Think foreign gangs roaming through London is a recent phenomenon? Think again as Maltese and Italians cornered the organised crime world.
And what about the Black Market? Well, business was booming. As gangster Mad ‘Frankie’ Fraser later said, ‘I’ll never forgive Hitler for surrendering, we were making so much money!’
And what about the Americans? Healthy appetites, charm, good looks and money were not the only thing they brought with them. Also racial segregation and a veritable army of criminals.
Bestselling crime novelist Mark Ellis, author of the DCI Frank Merlin series, is interviewed about the criminal underworld during World War Two.Boom Time, a short book to open the eyes of anyone interested in the reality of the Second World War Homefront in the capital.
Mark Ellis is a thriller writer from Swansea and a former barrister and entrepreneur. He is the creator of DCI Frank Merlin, an Anglo-Spanish police detective operating in World War 2 London.
Mark Ellis Links
⁠Boom Time: True Crime in WW2 London⁠
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
June 23, 2025 True Crime in WW2 London: Episode 1 - The Wartime Crime Bonanza with Mark Ellis
The accepted story of the Home Front during the Second World War is one of cooperation and teamwork as people across Britain linked arms to provide support for the war effort, right? Wrong. Crime rates actually increased during the war years.
Think foreign gangs roaming through London is a recent phenomenon? Think again as Maltese and Italians cornered the organised crime world. And what about the Black Market? Well, business was booming. As gangster Mad ‘Frankie’ Fraser later said, ‘I’ll never forgive Hitler for surrendering, we were making so much money!’
And what about the Americans? Healthy appetites, charm, good looks and money were not the only thing they brought with them. Also racial segregation and a veritable army of criminals.
Bestselling crime novelist Mark Ellis, author of the DCI Frank Merlin series, is interviewed about the criminal underworld during World War Two.
Boom Time, a short book to open the eyes of anyone interested in the reality of the Second World War Homefront in the capital.
Mark Ellis is a thriller writer from Swansea and a former barrister and entrepreneur. He is the creator of DCI Frank Merlin, an Anglo-Spanish police detective operating in World War 2 London.
Mark Ellis Links
Boom Time: True Crime in WW2 London
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
34 min
June 20, 2025 Ancient Greece through Artemisia & Olympias with Daisy Dunn
Boudicca, Cleopatra, Artemisia and Olympias are just a few if the many women of the ancient world that we know about, but it’s significant that we know about them from male writers. That gives a certain perspective, not necessarily inaccurate, but it can be. Today I’m speaking with a classicist who writes about antiquity having gone direct to the sources and translating them herself, and has written a quite wonderful history of ancient Greece and Rome that is unusual in the discipline for saying something new.
My guest is Daisy Dunn, author of The Missing Thread and we talk about some of the key female figures from Greece: Artemisia, a naval commander from the west coast of Asia Minor fighting for the Persians, and Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great. We delve into a number of other areas for a most stimulating chat.
Looking for something to do at the end of June? You could do worse than head to the Chalke History Festival.
Daisy Dunn Links
The Missing Thread
Chalke
Chalke History Festival
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]

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44 min
June 13, 2025 The Tank with Mark Urban
On 20 November 1917, after a bombardment of the trenches near the town of Cambrai, German troops prepared for an attack by their British opponents. Out of the gloom emerged steel mechanised vehicles. The tank. Within minutes the Germans were overrun and the Mark IV tank had achieved its first stunning victory, a major milestone for this military innovation.
Mark Urban joins to discuss his latest book, Tank, which selects 10 and includes iconic beasts such as the Tiger and the T-34. We talk about where tank warfare is heading, in the context of the conflict in Ukraine and the recent Strategic Defence Review, and how tanks have changed in over 100 years.
Gordon Corera is speaking to me as part of the Chalke History Festival, which runs from 23rd to 29th June. Aspects of History is sponsoring Gordon’s talk with the novelist Charles Cumming.
Mark Urban Links
Tank
Chalke
Chalke History Festival
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]

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57 min
June 06, 2025 The Spy Who Tried to Kill the KGB with Gordon Corera
In March 1992 in Vilnius, Lithuania, an old man walked into the recently established British Embassy, holding a bag containing sausages. But those sausages were concealing documents liberated from the KGB archives in Moscow, and the old man was Vasili Mitrokhin, chief archivist of Russia’s secret police. His defection provided the West with vast amounts of material that provided information on the Cambridge Spy ring, but also ongoing operations including the Illegals – Soviet moles burrowed deep inside American society.
Gordon Corera joins to discuss his new book The Spy in the Archive. Gordon is speaking to me as part of the Chalke History Festival, which runs from 23rd to 29th June. Aspects of History is sponsoring Gordon’s talk with the novelist Charles Cumming.
Gordon Corera Links
The Spy in the Archive
Chalke History Festival
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]

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46 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.