Willy Willy Harry Stee...

In this episode of his Willy Willy Harry Stee Book Club, Charlie Higson looks at a new book which uses eye-witness accounts to paint a stark picture of the start of World War 1. As war broke out in the summer of 1914, not a nation on Earth understood the magnitude of what they were about to face. To win it, whole populations must be mobilised, and neutrality was impossible to practice.Our understanding of this complex conflict has been coloured by a blinkered approach to popular history. It has ignored the fact that Denmark...

In this edition of the Summer History Reading Book Club, Charlie Higson is on a witch hunt.As a woman, if you lived in Scotland in the 1500s, there was a very good chance that you, or someone you knew, would be tried as a witch. Witch hunts ripped through the country for over 150 years, with at least 4,000 accused, and many women's fates sealed by a grizzly execution of strangulation, followed by burning.In their book How to Kill A Witch: A Guide For The Patriarchy writers and podcasters Claire Mitchell, KC, and...

In this episode of the Summer Reading Book Club, Charlie Higson is looking at a book which explores art history in a unique way.It's called the History of Art in One Sentence: 500 years of art - but funny, written by Verity Babbs. Verity has carved out her own cultural space as an art historian, comedian and presenter. To quote from her website, Verity's work focuses on making the art world more accessible and bringing laughter into cultural spaces.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special episode of Willy Willy Harry Stee, Charlie Higson takes a moment to look at the history of the English flag, the Union Jack and the Cross of St George. Where did they come from? What do they mean? What do they represent?With the current outbreak of flag raising around the country and furious arguments about what these flags represent, Charlie un-furls the truth to help us understand the real origins of the flags of the United Kingdom. Hosted on Acast...

In this edition of Charlie Higson's Summer Reading History Book Club, he looks at the history between England and India.Before the East India Company and before the British Empire, England was an unimportant backwater. Seeking better fortunes, 16th and 17th century merchants ventured to the empire of the mighty Mughals, attempting to sell coarse woollen broadcloth that nobody really wanted.It was a land ruled from the palatial towers by women – the formidable Empress Nur Jahan Begim, the enterprising Queen Mother Maryam al-Zamani, and the intrepid Princess Jahanara Begim. Their collision of worl...

Joining Charlie Higson on this edition of the Summer Reading History Book Club is comedian, musician and writer, Al Murray.As well as being the man behind the Pub Landlord, Al is also able, in his own words, to 'bang on' about his love of World War II history for a long time. Which suits us just fine. Al is the author of Watching War Films With My Dad, Command: How the Allies Learned to Win the Second World War, Arnhem, Black Tuesday and Victory '45 - The End Of...

In this episode of his Summer Reading History Book Club, Charlie Higson discusses his favourite book about possibly the most famous person who has ever lived. Queen Elizabeth II. Virginia Woolf compared her to a caterpillar; Anne Frank kept pictures of her on the wall of her annex and Donald Trump offended her; E.M. Forster confessed he would have married her, if only she had been a boy.The book that uncovers these fascinating insights is A Voyage Around the Queen by the very clever and very funny Craig Brown and in this episode, Charlie and Craig talk abo...

In this edition of his Summer History Book Reading Club, Charlie Higson invites Amy Licence back to the podcast to talk about her new book, The Sixteenth Century in 100 Women. As part of her self-confessed mission to shine a light on forgotten but important women in history, Amy has scoured the records from Europe and beyond to tell the stories of mistresses and martyrs, witches and muses, pirates and jesters, doctors and astronomers, escapees and murderesses, colonists and saints.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the summer sun beats down......probably.....Charlie Higson brings you another great historical book to get your sunglasses into.The Light Ages by Seb Falk, A Medieval Journey Of Discovery.It's easy to form an impression of how backward and ignorant everybody was in the Middle Ages, BUT in his book, Seb explores the time through the life of an extraordinary monk, John of Westwick and he uncovers an age when people were eager to learn about the workings of the world and indeed of the stars in the universe, demonstrating just...

In this episode of Charlie Higson's Summer Reading History Book Club, we're edging away from the Fourteenth Century and the Wars of The Roses. Well, when I say edging, I mean hurtling, as we reach the 20th, and indeed the 21st Century, to a group of young men whose impact on culture and society, fashion and of course music is pretty hard to overstate.In Stuart Maconie’s new book, With A Little Help from Their Friends: The Beatles Changed the World, but Who Changed Theirs?, Stuart discusses some of the people around this infamous band who irrevocably altered the world...

How's the summer reading going? Well, today's episode of The Willy Willy Harry Stee Summer Reading History Book Club features a book that will grip you from start to finish, one definitely worth adding to your suitcase.The book is Sceptred Isle and the author chatting to Charlie Higson is Helen Carr who's been a guest on the show a few times.Helen's big interest is the Middle Ages and her book is A New History of the Fourteenth Century, an extraordinary time with some extraordinary characters right across the board. Hos...

In this episode of The Summer History Reading Book Club, Charlie Higson is talking to Tom Phillips, author of a series of very funny books known as the ‘Brief History’ series.These books include Humans - A Brief History of How We Fucked It All Up which was published in 2018. He followed this up with Truth - A Brief History of Total Bullshit, in 2019 – and then Conspiracy - A History of Bullshit Theories and How Not To Fall For Them, published in 2022 and as his most recent book is A Brief History of the End Of The Fucking Wor...

Yes, Summer is here and for many, that means a break and the chance to dig into a good book.In this special set of episodes, to run through July and August, Charlie Higson delves headfirst into some of the current crop of history books and invites the authors onto the podcast.In 1603 England was on the edge of crisis. Queen Elizabeth I had died, bringing the Tudor line to an end.Enter King James, who reached London after an unprecedented procession from Scotland. James established a new dynasty on...

In this episode, Charlie Higson digs into the dark world of a man sometimes called the first serial killer.Gilles de Rais was accused of, and eventually confessed to some awful, depraved crimes, and this was a man who was a companion in arms of Joan of Arc!At his trial, he was hanged for the murder of 140 children, both young men and women, killed for sexual pleasure and to help him in satanic rituals. So did he do it? There were confessions, many of which you can read even...

In this episode, Charlie Higson shines a light on the life of Margaret Beaufort, a really extraordinary woman who was a major figure in the Wars Of The Roses of the late 15th century, and mother of Henry VII the first Tudor monarch.But she was so much more than that, and became instrumental in orchestrating the rise to power of the Tudor dynasty. To help Charlie tell her incredible story, he welcomes Amy Licence back to the podcast. Amy has written extensively about this period, including the book "Tudor roses – from Margaret Beaufo...

In this brand-new episode of Willy Willy Harry Stee Charlie Higson is looking at Jasper Tudor.Although he's a name that doesn't spring to many people's lips in everyday conversation, he is a fascinating and important character, describing himself as brother and uncle of kings, his nephew being Henry VII, father of the most infamous Tudor of them all, Henry VIII.To help Charlie unwrap Jasper's life and influence, Charlie welcomes Nathan Amin back to the podcast, author of Son of Prophecy, the Rise of Henry Tudor.<...

In this episode, Charlie Higson is heading into the barrel. No, not to scrape the bottom of it, but to talk about George Duke of Clarence. If you know anything about him, the one fact is probably that he was famously drowned on the orders of his own brother in a barrel of Malmsy wine. But why? Well that is the question Charlie is going to be answering in this episode and to help him, he welcomes back Matt Lewis, presenter and writer for the History Hit channel. Matt is fascinated by the...

In this episode, Charlie Higson delves into the life of a fascinating woman, Cecily Neville, daughter of Ralph Neville, wife of Richard, Duke Of York.As a Neville, she was a member of one of the most powerful families in the Kingdom and she had an extraordinary life. The youngest of her father's 22 children, she went on to have 12 children of her own, two of whom became King of England.Helping us understand Cecily's place in The Wars Of The Roses, Charlie welcomes back Lacey Bonar Hull. Doctor of Medieval & Tudor History and...

As Charlie Higson continues his canter through history, he lands on Margaret Of Anjou, the powerful French woman who fought so hard for her husband, Henry VI when his rule was challenged in the Wars of the roses, and was called by Shakespeare "The She Wolf of France", in Henry VI part III. As ever though, historical research tells a different story of a woman who was a better leader than many of her male contemporaries, as explained in this episode by Amy Licence, author of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou: A Marriage of Unequals.</p...

Whan that aprill with his shoures sooteThe droghte of march hath perced to the roote,And bathed every veyne in swich licourOf which vertu engendred is the flour;These lines, although difficult to understand, are from a key work in English literature. They have endured today, in part, thanks to a man called William Caxton, who chose a book called 'The Canterbury Tales' as the first book to be printed in England. In this episode, Charlie Higson looks at the life and work of William Ca...