Listen to the flutter of tiny wings - Cupid is in town! Where will he shoot his arrows on this, the most romantic day of the year? Of course, at this podcast we hate happy stories of romance so for our Valentine Special we are pleased to present two ghostly tales of doomed lovers from the Norfolk Broads.

A special live recording of the Hallowe’en Ruth is Stranger than Fiction event, held at the Museum of Cambridge on 31st October 2025. I was joined by author Mike Rampton for an exploration of the strange creatures of Cambridgeshire: some ghostly, some demonic, some large and some that have baffled philosophers and scientists for hundreds of years.

Thank you to the wonderful Museum of Cambridge for hosting us!

Back to Norfolk we go for the second part of Death by Dumplings! Unassuming Norwich man John Burgess has been poisoned, but he was not the intended victim. Now we will hear who was meant to receive the arsenic-laced flour, and who it was that did the lacing. The cocktail fuelled chat also has us pondering on brass rubbings, moonlight reading, and seditious literature.

When Norwich man John Burgess sat down to a dinner of Norfolk dumplings in 1829, little did he suspect that he was about to eat himself into a nightmare. Poor John was about to board the poison train. Join us for talk of suet, stomach linings, and a number of tasty drinks.

Picture: A Norfolk Dumpling by James Gillray.

More stories from the sea this week as we return to the watery shores of East Anglia for the folk legend commonly known as the Wild Man of Orford. I however will be referring to him as the Orford Merman - listen to discover why!

Image from the Wellcome Collection.

The seas and oceans of our world are deep and mysterious, with plenty of legends of horrible creatures and man-eating beasts. In this episode we dive into terrifying tales of mythical sea monsters, as well as hearing about some extraordinary colossal animals that are all too real. You can decide for yourselves into which category the sea serpents of the East Anglian coastline fall.

Last time we left you in suspense with the peculiar disappearance of American student James Dallas Egbert III. This episode we will learn his fate and discover whether or not the moral outrage around RPGs and D&D was justified. We must also return to the UK to rejoin the story of parapsychologist Carl Sargent, which entails a mystery of its own.

And it’s time to Booze Your Illusion with the return of everyone’s (no one’s) favourite drink!

Image by Mathieu Nonnenmacher used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Get the D20 ready! Grab the nearest Fighting Fantasy book! For the next couple of episodes we’re diving into the world of Role Playing Games, or RPGs for those in the know. But it will take a winding route to get us there, through the early career experiments of a Cambridge parapsychologist called Carl Sargent, and via the story of a missing teenager from Ohio. Turn to 148…

The stage is set, but not for a fine production of Shakespeare or Greek tragedy… no, the stage is set for MURDER! Last time we met a rum assortment of ne’er-do-wells from the Regency underground, and this time one (or more) of them is about to meet a violent end. The whole sorry saga gives rise to media hysteria, public bloodlust, and an unexpected joke about pork.

Episode illustration of Hunt, Probert, and Thurtell from the Wellcome Collection.

Ahhh the Regency era, when everyone was obsessed with true crime entertainment, boxing, and illegal gambling. Those were the days! From the East End of London to the quiet rural towns of Norfolk, violence was brewing for a motley crew of fellows, but the roles of hero and villain are as yet unclear.