When you pick up a dictionary and look up a word, have you ever stopped to consider who it was that compiled such meticulous work? Was it a scholar, or group of scholars, holed up in a musty backroom somewhere dedicating their lives to the task, or a wide group of volunteers, crowdsourcing an otherwise unthinkable workload? Or was it perhaps, a madman and mu ... Show More
Oct 12
The Strange Disappearance of Rudolf Diesel
SOURCES Brunt, Douglas (2023) The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel. Atria Books, London, UK. Edinburgh Evening Dispatch (1913) The Missing Inventor. Edinburgh Evening Dispatch, Thurs 2 Oct 1913, p2. Edinburgh, UK. New York Times (1913) Dr Diesel Vanishes From A Steamship. New Yor ... Show More
52m 56s
Sep 8
The Willie Starchfield Murder Mystery
On a cold, grey January afternoon in 1914, a railway carriage travelling through north London shuttled along its route, carrying a grim secret. Beneath a third-class carriage seat lay the body of five-year-old Willie Starchfield, strangled and carefully concealed from view. Earli ... Show More
1 h
Nov 2018
The Bizarre Origin of the Oxford English Dictionary
With 600,000 words and 3 million quotations, the Oxford English Dictionary is a massive tome. Work began on the dictionary in 1857, but the first edition wasn't published until 1884. Compiling the dictionary was a Herculean task, and James Murray, the editor of the dictionary, pu ... Show More
43m 20s
Aug 2025
CLASSIC: The Bizarre Origin of the Oxford English Dictionary
With 600,000 words and 3 million quotations, the Oxford English Dictionary is a massive tome. Work began on the dictionary in 1857, but the first edition wasn't published until 1884. Compiling the dictionary was a Herculean task, and James Murray, the editor of the dictionary, pu ... Show More
44m 44s
Dec 2024
Sex Life & Scandal of Charles Dickens
Like it or not, there's no escaping Charles Dickens at this time of year.But who was the man behind classics such as A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and of course, A Christmas Carol?His life is as rich as many of the characters' stories in one of his books, including a brutal ... Show More
48 m