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 actively participated in laying minefields as soon as war began; that the first British shots were fired in West Africa, by a black man; and the first Australian casualties occurred not at Gallipoli, but in the Pacific.Charlie's guests are books authors Alex Churchill & Nicolai Eberholst, who have scoured the globe in search of an enormous quantity of fresh material, bringing us history not as told by 'great men', but as a people's view of the war which tells a touching and surprising tale of events that many us may have thought we already knew. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Zoe Venditozzi, have delved deeply into just why the trials exploded in Scotland to such a degree and with wit, and a sense of outrage, they attempt to inhabit the minds of the, often male, persecutors, revealing the inner workings of exactly why the Patriarchy went to such extraordinary lengths to silence women. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 worlds helped connect East and West, launching a tempestuous period of globalisation spanning from the Chinese opium trade to the slave trade in the Americas.Joining Charlie to explain this fascinating story is Dr Lubaaba Al-Azami, whose book 'Travellers in the Golden Realm' traces the origins of a relationship between two nations – one outsider and one superpower – whose cultures remain inextricably linked to this day. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 The War in Eight Surrenders, co-written with his We Have Ways podcast co-host, James Holland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 about this and his other works. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 how much more people knew, than we give them credit for. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 for all of us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.