This week on Tales of History and Imagination we discuss a murdered nanny, the murderer… his awful ancestors, and said murderer’s mysterious disappearance.

Trigger warnings: murder.

Sources Include:

A Different Class of Murder by Laura Thompson And several dozen news articles, including this piece from Lynn Barber interviewing John Aspinall This one from Steven Morris on the many theories on Lord Lucan’s disappearance This one (Morris and Angelique Chrisafis) on Jungle Barry (sometimes called Jungley Barry) This article (author not listed) from the Whanganui Chronicle on an unpleasant man named Roger Woodgate This article by Gary Nunn on John Stonehouse This Daily Mail article by Laura Thompson on the Taxi Driver hypothesis

And a handful of documentaries I never recorded at the time of writing the first attempt at this script a few years ago…

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This week on Tales of History and Imagination we return one last time to the wreck of the Batavia. This is where things, finally, go all ‘Lord of the Flies’ on Batavia’s Graveyard.

This is part four of a four parter - thanks for hanging in there with me all… I promise a load of one parters in the back half of the year.

Trigger warnings: murder, rape, descriptions of death by dehydration, a pitched battle and a handful of executions.

Sources Include:

Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash And Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons.

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Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.

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This week on Tales of History and Imagination we return to the wreck of the Batavia. In part two we follow the adventures of the 48 in the longboat as they make their way along Australia’s Western coast; learn a little more about Francisco Pelsaert, and speak of the first of the murders on Batavia’s Graveyard.

This is part three of a four parter.

Trigger warnings: Murder, colonialism, accidental poisoning.

Sources Include: Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash And Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons.

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Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly.

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This week on Tales of History and Imagination we return to the wreck of the Batavia. In part two we discuss heresy, and the harrowing life of under-merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz.

This is part two of a four parter.

Trigger warnings: Murder, colonialism, child mortality, religious extremism.

Sources Include: Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash And Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons.

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Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.

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This week on Tales of History and Imagination we return to Australia for a real life soap opera that was considerably more bloody than Neighbours or Home and Away. First we need to take a cruise on a Dutch VOC flagship called The Batavia, the year 1629.

In part one of a four parter, we discuss the voyage; how and why folk took such risks to travel to the end of the earth like this - and the voyage itself, right up until the ship wrecked on Houtman’s Abrolhos.

Note: Apologies all, as you can hear my voice is still a little scratchy on this one… I’ve had a bit of a nasty cold, and figured better to get this out now, than keep you waiting a month and a half to start this. Part two should be less so…

Trigger warnings: Murder, colonialism, attempted genocide and sexual assault.

Sources Include:

Batavia’s Graveyard by Mike Dash Ocean by John Haywood And Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons.

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Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.

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Hey all the next episode is likely to be delayed by a week or so… as you can hear I’m getting over a bit of a nasty cold/ case of flu - and my voice is still pretty ragged.. But in the meantime, here’s a little something I’ve had lying around collecting dust for, I guess years now?? I have actually forgotten what I was writing it for, but can think of a few places I can take this to…. What do you reckon, should I write an episode around this for some time in the second half of the 2025 season? Will be back soon all…

This week we travel to Australia for a game of Marn Grook, to discuss origin stories; perhaps the archetypal troubled sportsman - and horrific massacres.

Trigger warnings: Murder, suicide, colonialism, and to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people listening to this episode - I discuss some of your origin legends as best I can, and play a brief excerpt of a speech from an Aboriginal elder.

Sources Include:

Australia’s Most Unbelievable True Stories by Jim Haynes This University of Newcastle Article on Aboriginal massacres, quoting studies by Professor Lyndall Ryan This NSW State Library piece on The ‘First Fleet’ This article on Edward Wills First Contact by Anita Heiss This piece on the Dreamtime.

The deplorable (alleged) Neo-Nazi interruption of tribal elder Mark Brown, care of the Guardian Speeches from Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese on election night 2025, care of SBS News.

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The American actress Ilda Orme knew a thing or two about being cancelled, a long, long time before social media put the cancel button in the hands of the public at large. Her cancellers, she suspected were two hateful former in-laws and a theatre manager in their pocket.

Her cancellation was nearly literal - culminating in an assassination attempt.

What does one do when cancelled? If you’re Ilda Orme, you seek revenge in the most public way possible.

Trigger warnings: Gun violence and false accusations leading to incarceration.

Note: This fortnight’s episode is a little shorter than usual in the hope that doing a quick firebreak episode will get me back on a two-weekly schedule. Next fortnight should be back to around half an hour again.

Sources Include:

The Battered Body Beneath The Flagstones and Other Victorian Scandals by Michelle Morgan

The Madness of Ilda Orme by Dr Nell Darby

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Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly.

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