The first of our fiction episodes! This is an adaptation of La Señora Cornelia, a story from Novelas Ejemplares by Miguel de Cervantes. Juan de Gamboa, a Spanish student at the University of Bologna, gets caught up in an intrigue involving star-crossed lovers, swashing bucklers, and a really great hat.

After something of a hiatus, Sasha sits down with Dr. Carly Brown to chew the cud over some historical fiction. This episode we are reviewing The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton. There will be demons, anachronistically shaven heads, quite a bit of shade, and a really really big man. And no pockets.

Check out Carly's review and many more things early modern here: 

https://carlyjbrown.com/2021/03/22/madeira-mondays-the-devil-and-the-dark-water-by-stuart-turton-book-review/ 

This episode we follow the adventures of Francisco de Cuellar, a Spanish sea captain who winds up shipwrecked in Ireland. Joining the Spanish Armada hadn't seemed like a great idea in the first place, but it just gets worse... (also, Sasha attempts to speak Spanish)

Part 2 of 2. We finish up the story of Ann Fanshawe - featuring ghosts, pirates and cross-dressing, as all good Renaissance stories should.

Part one of two on the life of Ann Fanshawe, an English woman born in 1625 who gets caught up in that whole civil war thing.