The history behind your favourite William Morris designs
At a time when factories were reshaping society, Morris and his contemporaries believed mass production was damaging not only the lives of workers, but also the beauty and meaning of…
HistoryExtra podcast: Attenborough: a life on screen
This May marks the 100th birthday of leading British documentary-maker and natural historian David Attenborough. But what's the longer history of wildlife broadcasting? What inspired Attenborough to report back from…
HistoryExtra podcast: How to pull off a Georgian dinner party
A dinner party in a beautifully decorated Georgian dining room might sound sophisticated, even romantic – but planning such events was not for the faint-hearted. Amy Boyington advises Lauren Good…
HistoryExtra podcast: George Orwell’s final chapter
Did you know that George Orwell only found national acclaim as an author in the final years of his life, as his health was worsening? Or that, with the growing…
HistoryExtra podcast: History’s most mysterious manuscripts
What do exploding bats and amphibious galleons have in common? They're both fascinating features of some of the world's most mysterious manuscripts, as revealed by journalist and author Garry J…
History Extra podcast: What your hands say about you – according to history
What do your hands reveal about you? Historian Alison Bashford joins Elinor Evans to explore the extraordinary history of how people have interpreted the human hand. From ancient divination to…
History Extra podcast: Terrible puns and filthy limericks: the Victorian sense of humour
Queen Victoria was – so legend has it – famously 'not amused'. But, as Dr Bob Nicholson reveals in this episode of the HistoryExtra podcast, the long-lived queen did have…
HistoryExtra podcast: Untold LGBTQ stories of the National Trust
In 1895, when the National Trust was founded, homosexual acts of ‘gross indecency’ were still illegal in Britain. And yet, as Michael Hall reveals in his new book, A Queer…
HistoryExtra podcast: Going on strike in ancient Rome
Strikes and unions may seem like modern inventions, but they’ve existed for much longer than many of us realise. Historian Sarah E Bond talks to Jon Bauckham about how people…
History Extra podcast: Why Greenwich is the home of time
Why is a small observatory in south east London so important to the story of how we tell the time? Speaking to Elinor Evans, Emily Akkermans, Curator of Time at the…