Wild Shipwreck and Cannibal Story That Inspired Moby Dick
When a whaling ship sank in 1820, her crew were cast adrift thousands of miles from land, and faced starvation, madness, and death. Their ordeal would become one of the most extraordinary survival sto...
3 Aug 42min
Britain's Bloodiest Mutiny
The captain of the HMS Hermione was a sadist even by the not-very-high standards of the British Royal Navy in the 1700's. He was a prolific flogger, subjecting his crew to the cat-of-nine-tails. It wa...
30 Jul 31min
Murder In The Medici Court
In Medici Florence there were two ways of maintaining power - one was money and the other was murder. Isabella de’ Medici was the believed daughter of the Medici patriarch, a patron of the arts and a ...
27 Jul 47min
The Most Disastrous Voyage in Navy History
It's hard to wrap your head around all the disasters that befell Captain Anson's Royal Navy voyage around the world in the 1740s. Rampant scurvy, horrendous storms, marooning and mutiny to name but a ...
23 Jul 49min
Britain's Worst Airship Disaster
"It's like the Titanic, except you've never heard of it. And in a way, it's even weirder."So says today's guest, Cautionary Tales' host, Tim Harford, about the disastrous story he's taking Anthony and...
20 Jul 50min
Would You Rather Be On The Titanic Or In Pompeii?
Sound the trumpets! The day has finally arrived: Maddy Pelling is back on After Dark!To welcome her back into the coven, we're playing a game of historical 'Would You Rather?'. Listen on to hear Antho...
16 Jul 47min
The Story of England's First Drag Queen
Born John Cooper, "Princess Seraphina" was one of the first English Drag Queens. Princess Seraphina was an 18th-century gentleman’s servant who openly embraced her feminine drag persona. But in May 17...
13 Jul 43min
The Woman Who Had Sex With Ghosts
Ida Craddock is a name that should be much, much better known. She was a maverick sex educator who fought violent censorship in turn of the century America. She also loudly announced to the world that...
9 Jul 49min
