After the dramatic conclusion of Prince Harry’s case against the Murdoch Empire - which was supposed to be the media trial of the Century - Phil asks whether it was all worth it.

Then Carolyn Harris - a renowned expert on royal consorts - joins us from Canada again to talk about perhaps the most famous - or is that notorious? - consort of them all.

Weaving dramatic details of war, famine and revolution together with touching personal stories of a royal life, Carolyn brings Marie-Antoinette to life in all her complexity. Raised for a dynastic marriage she found herself one of the most famous and admired women in the world, and then one of the most hated. But how much of this did she truly deserve?

You can buy the books we feature on the podcast here, along with thousands of others...

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/raising-royalty-1000-years-of-royal-parenting-carolyn-harris/719121?aid=12054&ean=9781459735699&

Carolyn’s has also written 'Queenship and Revolution in Early Modern Europe: Henrietta Maria and Marie Antoinette' https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137491688 and her website is royalhistorian.com

**We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work**

Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalM...

*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.

The Scandal Mongers...

https://x.com/mongerspodcast

Phil Craig...

https://x.com/philmcraig

THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast

You can get in touch with the show via...

[email protected]

(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Produced by

PodcastWorld.org

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Britain's headstrong royal exile is soon to step into the legal ring with the media mogul and his entourage, in Harry's continuing campaign to make senior executives accountable for the hacking and other tabloid scandals in the UK. And pre-trial transcripts obtained by Vanity Fair show just how much damage the prince is threatening to do.

Clive Irving has reported on this story closely. But that’s not all. As a former senior executive - and leading investigative reporter - in a newspaper taken over by Rupert Murdoch he has seen first hand how the energetic Australian-American billionaire has transformed media and politics in many countries and for over 40 years - and he doesn't much like it. 

So is Prince Harry going to be the man who - finally - gets Murdoch into a court of law to defend his reputation? 

And if anyone wants to check out Phil’s address to the vegan haggis, it’s here in all its steaming glory...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1LLc5LUm_U&list=PLVgZixzfAQNh0cQHUjpgodnboBUwQ10PW&index=96

***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***

Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers

*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.

The Scandal Mongers...

https://x.com/mongerspodcast

Phil Craig...

https://x.com/philmcraig

THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast

You can get in touch with the show via...

[email protected]

(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Produced by

PodcastWorld.org

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our final episode of the year - and the 100th edition of the podcast - Helen Fry returns to share some more remarkable stories from the Second World War. 

Helen tells Phil of a long secret intelligence operation designed to extract information from enemy soldiers, sailors, pilots - and some of Hitler’s most senior Generals. Many of these men knew that the British were skilled at playing physiological tricks on prisoners of war - but they still fell for many of them, generating some hugely important information at critical times.  

You can buy Helen's book - and thousands of others - in our own online bookstore...

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-walls-have-ears-the-greatest-intelligence-operation-of-world-war-ii-helen-fry/77794?aid=12054&ean=9780300254853&

***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***

Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers

If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.

Please follow Helen here...

https://www.instagram.com/drhelenfry/

The Scandal Mongers...

https://x.com/mongerspodcast

Phil Craig...

https://x.com/philmcraig

THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast

You can get in touch with the show via...

[email protected]

(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Produced by

PodcastWorld.org

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writer Laura Thompson returns to the podcast, bringing all the insights and cleverness that has made her one of our most popular guests. And this time her subject is 'the heiress', including some of the most celebrated women in high society and literature. In her book 'Heiresses: the Lives of the Million Dollar Babies', Laura tells an incredible story of social change and bad behaviour in high places.

Although celebrated and pursued, the heiress could also be the target of scheming and manipulative men, and could never be sure if she was being admired and loved for herself or for her family's money. Some flourished, some fell apart and many lived lives of the highest drama.

You can buy Laura's book, and all the books we feature on the podcast here, along with thousands of others in our special Scandal Mongers bookshop...

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/heiresses-the-lives-of-the-million-dollar-babies-laura-thompson/2279252?aid=12054&ean=9781788548229&

***We now have a Thank You button (next to the 'three dots') for small donations that help support our work***

Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you'd like to get scandalous with? We're here to help...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers

*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.

Please follow Laura here...

https://laurathompsonwriter.substack.com/

The Scandal Mongers...

https://x.com/mongerspodcast

Phil Craig...

https://x.com/philmcraig

THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast

You can get in touch with the show via...

[email protected]

(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Produced by

PodcastWorld.org

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Carolyn Harris joins Phil to talk about one of the most extraordinary royal relationships of all time; between the future George IV and his unhappily married wife Caroline of Brunswick.

From a disastrously drunken wedding night, which nevertheless produced a princess, through years of mutual loathing, numerous affairs and illegitimate children (his), rumour of exotic foreign lovers (hers), political intrigues, popular protests and endless satirical cartoons and pamphlets to a final, farcical coronation ceremony in which the Queen of England was locked out of Westminster Abbey by the King’s own guards - this is quite a tale!

We also touch on a much happier royal union that happened just a few years later - that between Victoria and Albert.

Canadian historian Carolyn Harris is a world class expert on all things royal and has made a particular study of consorts - the women, and sometimes men, who marry into royalty and then have to carve out a role for themselves, often in an alien country and culture.

Her books can be found in North America and Canada and some are also available in the UK...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raising-Royalty-Years-Royal-Parenting-ebook/dp/B01CDU0NCE?ref_=ast_author_dp

***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***

Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers

*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.

Please Follow Carolyn Here...

https://x.com/royalhistorian

The Scandal Mongers...

https://x.com/mongerspodcast

Phil Craig...

https://x.com/philmcraig

THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to listen to watch on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast

You can get in touch with the show via...

[email protected]

(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Produced by

PodcastWorld.org

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Long before she became one of the most famous women in the world - and the love of a man destined to become a King-Emperor - Wallis Simpson had lived an extraordinary life. Perhaps the most incredible part of it was when she went to live in China as the unhappy wife of a drunken US Navy officer and ended up leaving him and entering a world of hedonism, intrigue (both politics and sexual) and all manner of complex relationships amid the glamour - and dangers - of Shanghai and Peking during the Jazz Age. Rumours of her behaviour in China - notably the infamous ‘Shanghai Grip’ she was alleged to have learned in a high class brothel - would be used against her many years later.

Paul French, an expert in Chinese history, has researched every aspect of Wallis’s time in China and his book, Her Lotus Year, brings that lost world to life - and nails a few myths. It also explains how and why Wallis became the formidable woman that she was.

You can buy Paul's book, and all the books we feature on the podcast here, along with thousands of others in our special Scandal Mongers bookshop...

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/her-lotus-year-china-the-roaring-twenties-and-the-making-of-wallis-simpson-paul-french/7624169?aid=12054&ean=9781783968183&

***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***

Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers

*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears***

The Scandal Mongers...

https://x.com/mongerspodcast

Phil Craig...

https://x.com/philmcraig

Follow Paul's work here...

https://www.instagram.com/oldshanghaipaul/

THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to listen to watch on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast

You can get in touch with the show via...

[email protected]

(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Produced by

PodcastWorld.org

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mok O'Keefe - aka 'The Gay Aristo' - returns to the podcast this week as a guest host. Mok - who lives in an actual castle - is a great fan of all things Gothic and so he's the perfect person to help Phil explore the scandalous life of Lord Byron and his circle of friends, and the creation of classic gothic tales during a memorable summer in a small villa near Lake Geneva.

It was here that Bryon, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and other staged a writing competition that created Frankenstein and the first modern Vampire novel.

Romani academic Madeline Potter is fascinated with the writers of this period and brings her expert knowledge - and enthusiasm for all things Transylvanian - to the conversation.

You can buy the books we feature on the podcast here, along with thousands of others...

https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/scandalmongers

Phil's upcoming book on 1945 is now available for pre order in the UK. It will be published in April 2025 in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/139971449X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=#

Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you'd like to get scandalous with? We're here to help...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers

*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.

The Scandal Mongers...

https://x.com/mongerspodcast

Phil Craig...

https://x.com/philmcraig

Mok O' Keeffe...

https://www.instagram.com/mokokeeffe/

THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on Youtube...

https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast

You can get in touch with the show via...

[email protected]

(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Produced by

PodcastWorld.org

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When BBC reporter Rory Cellan Jones uncovered a pile of old love letters under his mother Sylvia's bed after she died, he unearthed the secret story of his own life.

The result was a bestselling book of real power and intelligence, in which he reconstructs the scandalous relationship that created him - but that also limited his mother’s life choices and ensured that he would not know who his father was for many years.

Rory joins Phil to talk about his life, his mother and father, and the lost world of the 1950s and 60s - where smart young women could sometimes forge exciting careers but society looked very unkindly at love affairs that crossed age and class barriers.

You can buy Rory's book - and thousands of others - in our own online bookstore...

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ruski...

**We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work**

Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalM...

** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears **

THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on Youtube...

https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast

The Scandal Mongers...

  / mongerspodcast  

Phil Craig...

  / philmcraig  

You can get in touch with the show via...

[email protected]

(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Produced by

PodcastWorld.org

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Phil has the latest on the semi-public tug of war over Prince Andrew’s living arrangements. How much longer can he cling on to Royal Lodge?

And why do key figures in the British establishment find it so easy to cling onto power and position for so long, despite the most shocking scandals? The story of the Archbishop of Canterbury this week may help us understand.

Historian Adrian Phillips then joins Phil to talk about the endlessly fascinating subject of Winston Churchill in an entirely original way - through his strange collection of friends.

You can buy Adrian’s book - and thousands of others - in our own online bookstore...

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/winston-s-bandits-churchill-and-his-maverick-friends-adrian-phillips/7711924?aid=12054&ean=9781785907890&

***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***

Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers

*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears ***

THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast

The Scandal Mongers...

https://twitter.com/MongersPodcast

Phil Craig...

https://twitter.com/philmcraig

You can get in touch with the show via...

[email protected]

(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Produced by

PodcastWorld.org

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we dip into the remarkable - and often scandalous - world of military intelligence with historian Helen Fry.

Her widely acclaimed new book Women in Intelligence reveals a huge number of fascinating stories of the critical - and often deadly - work done by British and American women throughout the 20th Century. Some of these stories - and these brave womens’ lives - have been kept deeply secret until the last few years.

You can buy Helen's book, and all the books we feature on the podcast here, along with thousands of others

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/women-in-intelligence-the-hidden-history-of-two-world-wars-helen-fry/7428008?aid=12054&ean=9780300260779&

***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***

Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers

*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.

THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on youtube...

https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcast

The Scandal Mongers...

https://twitter.com/MongersPodcast

Phil Craig...

https://twitter.com/philmcraig

You can get in touch with the show via...

[email protected]

(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Produced by

PodcastWorld.org

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.