The Weight of Words Series continues with Defoe's Britain (St. Augustine's Press, 2023), as historian Jeremy Black uses this writer to interpret Britain in the late 1600s, and likewise looks to the times to interpret the fiction. As seen in previous studies on Christie, Smollett, Fielding, and the Gothic novelists, Black tells the story of the story-teller, ... Show More
Today
David Womersley, "Thinking Through Shakespeare" (Princeton UP, 2026)
In the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson famously argued that Shakespeare is enduringly popular because he “is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life.” Johnson’s vie ... Show More
1h 1m
Yesterday
The British General Election of 2024: A Conversation with Robert Ford and Paula Surridge
Why and how did Labour win the 2024 election? In The British General Election of 2024 Robert Ford, a Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester, Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, Will Jennings, Professor of Politics at the University ... Show More
47m 30s
Apr 25
Tiffany Jo Werth, "The Lithic Imagination from More to Milton" (Oxford UP, 2024)
The Lithic Imagination from More to Milton (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Tiffany Jo Werth explores how stones, rocks, and the broader mineral realm play a vital role in early modern England's religious and cultural systems, a role that, in turn, informs the period's poet ... Show More
46m 23s
Dec 2023
401. Windrush: The Story of Black Britain
On the 8th of June 1948, the HMT Windrush sailed from Kingston with almost 500 migrants on board, destined for England. The ship docked at Tilbury on the 22nd of June, and history was made. Since that day the legend of Windrush has gradually come to characterise an increasingly b ... Show More
50 m
Oct 2022
The Long History of African and Caribbean People in Britain
<p>There remains a tendency to reduce the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain to a simple story: it is one that begins in 1948 with the arrival of a single ship, the Empire Windrush. Yet, from the very beginning, from the moment humans first stood on this rainy isl ... Show More
27m 57s
Dec 2023
400. Victorian Britain's Maddest Mystery
In 1854, the twenty-five year old aristocrat Roger Tichborne, heir to an impressive fortune, died in a shipwreck ....Or did he? His mother, certain of her son’s survival, advertised extensively with a tantalising reward for her son’s return. Twenty years later a rough, corpulent ... Show More
45m 35s
Jul 2023
Britain’s love affair with Edward VII
The death of King Edward VII in 1910 pitched Britain into a frenzy of mourning, as the nation marked the passing of a symbol of continuity and stability in an ever more unpredictable world. Speaking to Spencer Mizen, Martin Williams reveals how the ageing, conservative king emerg ... Show More
35m 30s
Nov 2022
Dark Age bullies & forgotten kingdoms: busting early medieval myths
The traditional story that’s told about Britain from the end of the Roman period through to the arrival of the Vikings is one of coalescing kingdoms, leading inexorably towards the rise of Wessex as the last man standing. However, the real story is much more complicated, as Thoma ... Show More
43m 50s