Travels Through Time

In today’s beautifully described episode the author and journalist Luke Turner takes us back to 1943 to present us with a refreshingly different view of World War 2. The war, Turner reminds us, was a cultural experience as well as a military contest. One feature of this cultural environment has been largely neglected by generations of scholars. This is the unusual degree of freedom some members of the British armed forces had to explore issues of sexuality and gender. The stories that feature in this episode are covered in much more depth in Luke’s fascinating new book. Men at War: Loving, Lusting, Fighting, Remembering 1939-1945 is published this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 3-4 April 1943. RAF Lissett, Bridlington, East Yorkshire. Scene Two: 16 April 1943. Off the coast of North Africa with Wing Commander Ian Gleed of the RAF. Scene Three. November 1943. A couple of hundred miles north of the Allied line with Lieutenant Dan Billany. Memento: The cockpit door from Ian Gleed’s hurricane. People/Social Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Luke Turner Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1943 fits on our Timeline

This week we have an extra Friday episode for you. It’s with the multi-talented artist, historian and musician Dr Amy Jeffs. She takes us back to 1327, a year of high political drama when King Edward II of England was deposed by his wife, Isabella, and his teenage son, Edward III was crowned and began his fifty-year reign. Jeffs spent her university years deep in the Middle Ages, studying palaeography, Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse and Middle Welsh, alongside more traditional art history courses. Her fascination with words and images in manuscripts has led her to create two books, Storyland and Wild which explore enigmatic early Medieval stories and are beautifully illustrated with her own linocut prints, while the audiobook versions feature her songs and compositions. Wild, which is just out in paperback, explores the mysterious, riddling tales in The Exeter Book, a rare tenth century manuscript of old English literature which has been in Exeter Cathedral since 1072. In this episode Jeffs tells Violet more about all of this and together they set off for 1327 to examine the year’s politics through the prism of two compelling manuscripts. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 1327. A disaster in the scriptorium. A group of manuscript makers, including a scribe and a painter, have been working on producing a book containing a series of portraits of English kings from William the Conqueror to Edward II, surmounting a poem that builds up to an exhortation for Edward II to conquer the Scots. Scene Two: A mother’s gift. Sometime between 15-year-old Edward III’s knighting on 31st January and his coronation on 1st Feb 1327, his mother gives him a lavishly illuminated manuscript containing a treatise on kingship. Scene Three. A funeral. Edward III’s father died/was killed at Berkeley Castle, on the 21st September 1327, but his funeral did not take place until 21st October. His body was borne to Gloucester Abbey, not in state, but with a wooden effigy. Memento: Edward II’s crown, as displayed on his effigy. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Dr Amy Jeffs Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1327 fits on our Timeline == Amy’s linocut images can be ordered from https://www.amyjeffshistoria.com Insta: https://www.instagram.com/historia_prints/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2DrP4TiFqjZHAaWeLdQEGB

In the last decades of the fifteenth century, life in England was finally starting to settle down after years of upheaval and conflict during the Wars of the Roses which had riven society since the mid 1450s. Waves of Plague had decimated the population, causing widespread distress but providing unexpected opportunities for those who survived. The cultural and political landscape were ripe for change. This week’s guest, the distinguished historian Nicholas Orme, takes us back to this time. He guides us back to 1480, a year he describes as being ‘on the cusp’. ‘It is not exactly a year of great achievement’, he argues, but in England it was ‘a year of great promise.’ Nicholas Orme is Emeritus Professor of History at Exeter University, he has written more than thirty books. Tudor Children, his latest, takes the reader from birth to adulthood through the themes of work, play, religion and education. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: Westminster. William Caxton's shop, where he is selling books, 80% of them in English, including his printed edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales which helps to develop the 'King's English', based on the Midlands dialect. Scene Two: Oxford. William Waynflete is opening his new grammar school, Magdalen College School, which for the first time is going to teach classical, rather than medieval, Latin and bring England into the Renaissance. Scene Three. Bristol. William Worcester is measuring and describing the streets of the city: the first ever historical survey of an English town.  Memento: Second edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales published by William Caxton. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Nicholas Orme Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1480 fits on our Timeline

This month marks 80 years since the government of Nazi Germany announced the shocking discovery of a series of mass graves in the Katyń Forest in the occupied USSR. Thus began one of the most tangled and disturbing of WW2 stories. Just what had happened? In this episode from our archive, the writer Jane Rogoyska, author of Surviving Katyń, takes us back to the year 1940 to find out. *** In April 1943 the discovery of a series of mass graves in the Katyń Forest near Smolensk in the Soviet Union ignited one of the most explosive rows of the Second World War. The identity of the victims was clear enough. They were the Polish military elite and significant figures – academics, writers, industrials, doctors - from wider Polish society. But who was responsible? The Germans instantly blamed the Soviets. The Soviets retaliated that the accusation was a ‘vile slander’, intended to mask yet another instance of Nazi wickedness. In this episode the writer Jane Rogoyska takes us back to the scene of a sinister and bitterly contested crime: the Katyń Massacre. Jane Rogoyska is the author of Surviving Katyn: Stalin’s Polish Massacre and the Search for Truth   As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: March 1940, Starobelsk camp, Soviet Ukraine. Bronisław Młynarski and his friends find a mysterious message tied to the collar of a stray dog. Scene Two: April 1940, Starobelsk camp. NKVD Commissar Kirshin stands on the steps of the ruined church watching the transports of men depart: ‘You are leaving,’ he says, ‘for a place where I would like to go myself.’ Scene Three: July 1940, Griazovets camp near Vologda in the far north of Russia. The artist Józef Czapski gives an informal lecture about Marcel Proust, delivered entirely from memory, to a group of friends lying on the grass in the sun. Memento: One of the Christmas decorations created by graphic artist Edward Manteuffel while he was a prisoner in Starobelsk camp. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Jane Rogoyska Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Colorgraph Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1940 fits on our Timeline

Today the archaeologist and executive director of World Monuments Fund, John Darlington, takes us on a dramatic trip back to the 1690s to witness a devastating earthquake in the Caribbean. Scroll down, too, for news of a special discount code. *** After its capture by the English in 1655, Port Royal, Jamaica, became a place of great significance. Home to around 6,500 people by the 1690s, it was known variously as 'the fairest town of all the English plantations' and the ‘richest and wickedest city in the New World’. Everything, though, changed on the morning of 7 June 1692 when an earthquake struck the town. Two thirds of Port Royal sunk immediately into the sea. Sand liquefied. Ships capsized and one was lifted over rooftops by the subsequent tsunami. It was a blow from which the town would never recover. Today Port Royal is a small fishing village. The ruined remains of its heyday survive under the sea.   Our guide on this dangerous journey back in time is the celebrated archaeologist John Darlington whose ‘obsession with ruinous and abandoned places’ began as a baby being pushed around the ruins of Leptis Magna in his pram. Darlington currently works for the World Monuments Fund, and his new book Amongst The Ruins, Why Civilisations Collapse and Communities Disappear is published today by Yale University Press. In it, he tells the stories of lost places as diverse as ancient Assyria and twentieth century St Kilda, grouping them around five themes, before offering some ideas for how this kind of destruction can be avoided in the future. *** SPECIAL OFFER for listeners: to get 20% off John Darlington's Amongst The Ruins, Why Civilisations Collapse and Communities Disappear (just £20 with free postage and packing) head to the Yale website and enter the code RUINS . Valid from 11 April to 30 June and for UK orders only. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 6 June 1692. Merchants, slaves, pirates and priests throng the heady streets of Port Royal, where there is one alehouse for every ten people. Huge ships arrive leaden with luxuries, docking in the deep-water harbour of the town, which is built on a fragile series of coral islands. Scene Two: 7 June 1692. The Reverend Emmanuel Heath sits down with his friend John White, acting Governor of Jamaica, to enjoy a glass of wormwood wine. An earthquake strikes the city followed by a tsunami, sucking entire streets into the liquified sand, throwing ships over the collapsing buildings and ejecting corpses from graves. Scene Three: 8 June 1692. The survivors survey the hellish remains of their city, most of which has disappeared under the sea or lies in ruins. A series of aftershocks cause more destruction and death, meanwhile diseases like Cholera begin to take hold, killing thousands more in the days to come. Memento: A French pocket watch excavated from the under-sea ruins of the city, stopped at 11.40am on 7 June, the moment the earthquake struck. People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: John Darlington Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Yale University Press Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1692 fits on our Timeline

‘I have so often wondered’, the historian Katja Hoyer says, ‘what I would have made of the state that I was born into had I been born a few years earlier and lived through it in the way that other people did.’ That state was East Germany or the German Democratic Republic (GDR). This was a nation that emerged out of the ashes of World War II and existed until the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1990. The GDR is remembered today in the West as a neurotic, oppressive nation, synonymous with its Ministry for State Security or Stasi. But in her new book Beyond The Wall, Hoyer attempts to present a fresh image. What was life really like for the citizens of the GDR, especially its youth? How did the ideals of the time impact them? Why were young leftists - among them Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn - so drawn to visit? In this revealing episode, Hoyer takes Artemis Irvine back on a trip to 1973 to find out.  Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian, journalist and. A visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she is a columnist for the Washington Post and hosts the podcast The New Germany. Her new book, Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990, is out this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 29 March 1973, the Kosmos cinema, for the premiere of the film The Legend of Paul and Paula. Scene Two: 2 July 1973, East Berlin in the Alexanderplatz, for the 10th World Festival of Youth and Students. Scene Three: 7 August 1973, the death of Walter Ulbricht, the man at the top of the GDR’s political framework. Memento: A silk scarf bearing the inscripted hopes and dreams of anyone the guest may have met at the Youth Festival. People/Social Presenter: Artemis Irvine Guest: Katja Hoyer Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1973 fits on our Timeline

In this episode we talk to the game designer David Milne about his historical work on the hugely popular real time strategy game Company of Heroes 3. Milne takes us back to the Mediterranean theatre of World War II, from Tobruk in North Africa to Anzio in Italy, as we learn how games developers faithfully evoke the past. Company of Heroes 3 is the latest instalment in the multi-million selling Company of Heroes franchise. Developed by Relic Entertainment in Vancouver, the game has been enthusiastically critically received. Gaming Trend called it ‘a masterpiece’. The reviewer for the NME described it as ‘fiercely intelligent.’ To accompany the title’s launch SEGA have developed a supporting content hub  called The Briefing Room. Filled with interactive maps, biographies of significant military figures and featuring analysis by leading academic authorities, it shows how faithfully SEGA have confronted the history that informs the game. Click here to explore The Briefing Room. David Milne is a senior game designer at Relic Entertainment. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: June 1942, Second Battle of Tobruk Scene Two: December 1943, Battle of Ortona Scene Three: March 1944, Anzio Beachhead Memento: As many soldiers’ memoirs as he can carry People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: David Milne Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: SEGA Theme music: Anvil Main Theme, Company of Heroes Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1942 fits on our Timeline

Join bestselling author Sarah Bakewell as she explores the fascinating lives of Petrarch and Boccaccio during the turbulent mid-14th century. Bakewell discusses how the backdrop of the Black Death influenced their literary masterpieces, marking the dawn of humanism. She shares insights on Petrarch's emotional journey after losing his muse, Laura, and the creation of Boccaccio's Decameron, which showcased storytelling as a refuge from disaster. With her new book, Humanly Possible, Bakewell brings these pioneering figures back to life.

The relationship between England and India is a deep and complex one. In this episode the academic and author of Courting India, Nandini Das, takes us back to a significant moment at the very beginning of this relationship. She tells us all about Sir Thomas Roe, the courtier who led the first English embassy to India. Roe's mission was an exciting and a daunting one. Stories about the riches of India had long been exchanged in England and, when he stepped ashore in Surat in 1615, he was able to see the might of the great Mughal Empire for himself. In contrast, England was regarded by many as an island of little consequence. But, as Das explains, there was one figure that Roe was desperate to impress. This was the richest man in the world, the fourth Mughal emperor, Jahangir. In early 1616, after arriving in Ajmer, he would get his chance. Nandini Das is professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture in the English faculty at the University of Oxford. Brought up in India, she was educated at the Jadavpur University in Kolkata, before moving to England for further study. Her book, Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire is out this week. For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com. Show notes Scene One: 10 January 1616, Mughal imperial court (durbar), Ajmer. The first meeting between Roe and the emperor, Jahangir. Scene Two: 24 May 1616, imperial private audience chambers, Ajmer. Roe desperately clings on to his English identity and has a problem with a runaway Englishman who wants to enter Mughal service. Scene Three: 18 December 1616. In the Mughal imperial procession (lashkar) across Rajasthan, following the emperor Jahangir. Roe Memento: A miniature portrait, belonging to Thomas Roe. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Nandini Das Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ See where 1616 fits on our Timeline

In this deeply moving episode from 2020 the New York Times bestselling author Ariana Neuman told her father's extraordinary story for the very first time. Hans Neumann was a young Jewish man from Prague who managed to outwit the Nazis and survive the Holocaust. Ariana Neumann grew up in the Venezuela of the 1970s and 1980s. This was a land of possibility and progress. Her father Hans Neumann - a hugely successful industrialist and patron of the arts – epitomised both these characteristics. But while Hans was outwardly a paragon of success and strength, there were parts of his private self that were unsettling to his close family. He would wake at night screaming in a language his daughter did not understand. He hardly ever mentioned his childhood in central Europe. He never said that he was Jewish. ‘Life,’ he would tell his daughter, ‘was to be lived in the present.’ On his death in September 2001, Ariana discovered a box of papers and photographs that her father had left her. They became the starting point for a personal investigation into her father’s European family and an unspoken history of horrific persecution and enthralling survival during the Holocaust. This episode of Travels Through Time was recorded on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. During the course of this conversation Ariana guides us back to the drama and tragedy of the year 1944: a defining year for the Neumann family of Prague. To see Hans’s doll, Zdenka ring and the Jan’s identity card – some of the objects discussed during the course of this conversation – please visit our website. When Time Stopped was published internationally in February 2020. It was an instant New York Times Bestseller. Show notes: Scene One: June 23 1944, Red Cross Visit to the Camp of Terezín, CZ. The place is beautified. Thousands are sent to Auschwitz to ease overcrowding and a charade is enacted to fool the International Red Cross inspectors. Scene Two: September 29/30 1944, The arrival of transport EI in Auschwitz, Poland. Scene Three: October 9 1944, Berlin Germany. Hans Neumann has been hiding in plain sight and using a fictitious identity. He receives a summons (issued October 5th) to appear in the Nazi District Court in Prague. Going back to Prague and appearing in court would, almost certainly, mean death. Memento: The sound of Otto Neumann humming the folk song Golem. People/Social Presenter: Peter Moore Guest: Ariana Neumann Producer: Maria Nolan