Tales of History and Imagination

This week we visit Sligo County, Ireland on a June day in 2009. Today we’re not the only tourists in town.. Who was the mysterious Peter Bergmann (or failing that) why did he go to Sligo, of all places to die?   

Content Warnings: Suicide, terminal illness, spousal abuse, marriage breakups, wartime violence - including assassination, espionage and torture. 

Sources Include:

The Unsolved Mystery of Peter Bergmann by Rosita Boland

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This week we’re all over the map, from Burma in the midst of the Saya San Rebellion, to the Island of Brač in the former Yugoslavia, to Britain’s Severn river. We follow the mad, occasionally performative life of Mad Jack Churchill - quite possibly the last man to kill an enemy combatant in war with a longbow.   

Sources Include:

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This week, on Tales we return to Nuremberg, Bavaria: Last month I warned you the Tale of Kaspar Hauser is no fairytale.. This time we ask, what if it is more like a fairytale than we take for granted - just we often misunderstand those old kids’ stories? Part Two of a Two parter.  

Apologies all, this has been held up by me catching a nasty nasal infection that has taken weeks to clear… For a while, at least I think we should be back on a fortnightly schedule - or close to it. 

Sources Include:

Kaspar Hauser: The Foundling of Nuremberg by Paul Anselm von Feuerbach

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This week, on Tales - I’m still shaking off a cold, and was planning a Patreon pledge week episode in a month’s time... So, apologies all, I’ve moved things around a little. I’ll record part two of Kaspar Hauser, and the completed script for the episode following that as soon as my voice has returned.   

How I met your mother: slavery, inappropriate relationships, and brief talk of genocide.

Sources Include:

Fascinating Footnotes from History by Giles Milton

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This week, on Tales we’re in Nuremberg, Bavaria: The year is 1828. A young man has appeared as if from out of nowhere with a horrific tale of captivity. Some wonder if he is some deposed price - but be warned, the following is no fairytale. Part one of a Two parter.  

Kaspar Hauser: The Foundling of Nuremberg by Paul Anselm von Feuerbach

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This week, on Tales we’re in England, the date November 26th 1703 - as a giant storm settles over the country that would haunt the nation for many years - and give birth to at least one new profession. 

Content Warnings: Descriptions of animal cruelty, traumatic deaths, and period-appropriate superstitions which may now seem utterly ridiculous.   

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This week, on Tales we return to Thebes one last time to discuss what happens when others even the field, the life and death or our two heroes, a young man named Philip - and a giant lion..  

This is part three of a three parter. 

Content Warnings: Battlefield injury and death, some depictions towards the end are quite graphic. Political violence, slavery and hostage taking. Assassination. Suicide-adjacent fatalism. Mass burial. Discussion of LGBTQI+ history not that THAT one should ever need to be a trigger warning - but there you go…Yes I got hate mail a few weeks back, so let’s throw it in there… 

and back to the actual nasty stuff, discussion of Authoritarianism, tyranny and mass killing.   

Sources Include:

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This week, on Tales we return to Thebes, to see how their Sacred Band is working out for them. We learn a little bit about Spartan King Agesilaus’ lost love, and we meet a warlord named Jason.  

This is part two of a three parter. 

Sources Include:

James Romm’s ‘The Sacred Band’

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This week, on Tales we journey to ancient Thebes, a Greek City state suddenly - unexpectedly - under the control of their foes, Sparta. When you have lost your freedom to a despot, and are fighting for your very survival, what can you turn to? First you have your foundational myths, and second - if you are Thebes - you have some of the toughest gay men ever to exist. 

This week, in part one of a three parter, we discuss the formation of The Sacred Band of Thebes. 

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This week, on a much waylaid episode of Tales we return to the Tichbornes,’ as Tom Castro makes his play for the land, money and titles. Does it turn out he was, in fact Roger Charles Tichborne - long thought lost at sea - or was he some larrikin on the lookout for an easy life? 

Content warnings: I said nothing on the tape: but on reflection: childhood bullying, and more talk of a character’s weight than I am comfortable with.     

Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.

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