Chalke Talk

The podcast from the Chalke Valley History Festival
Released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings

Chalke Talks for CVHFYEAR: 2017


  • 05. HERODOTUS: THE FATHER OF HISTORY
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    The ‘Father of History’ was a Greek living in Persia in the 5th century BC but was the first person to write down the stories from the past. Herodotus’ Histories remains one of the richest and most read books of all time, and in this talk renowned classicist Professor Paul Cartledge discusses the life of […]

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  • 08. IMMIGRATION IN ANTIQUITY
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    Immigration is one of the most hotly debated matters of our current age, but it’s far from being a recent phenomenon. Rather, the mass movement of peoples was as relevant to those living in ancient times as it is now. In this timely talk, Tom Holland questions how people in antiquity felt about immigration and […]

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  • 09. ISTANBUL: A TALE OF THREE CITIES
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    Award-winning historian, author and broadcaster Bettany Hughes gives a captivating portrait of the momentous life of Istanbul based on meticulous research gathered over a decade and brand new archaeological evidence. A ground-breaking history of this world-class city from its very beginnings in Neolithic times through 8,000 years of human habitation to the present.

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  • 11. THE NOBLE REVOLT: THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR
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    John Adamson is one of the country’s most brilliant historians and a leading authority on the Civil War. In this talk, he discusses what he calls ‘the noble revolt,’ challenging some of our perceptions of that conflict between Parliament and King while casting new and relevant light onto one of the most tumultuous and significant […]

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  • 13. THE CRUSADES AND MEDIEVAL WARFARE
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    In this talk for senior schools, Professor Jeremy Black gives an insight into the motivations of the Crusaders. In addition to the notion that Jerusalem should be ‘freed’, this period saw the expansionism of European feudal society, a new role for the papacy, and developing commercial opportunities, as well as a desire to protect Constantinople. […]

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  • 16. A BRIDGE TOO FAR: A VETERAN OF ARNHEM
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    Peter Clarke was a glider pilot who landed and then fought with his fellow airborne troops at Arnhem in September 1944. Here, in conversation with Paul Beaver, he talks about and discusses his memories of that doomed battle and the remarkable story of what followed.

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  • 18. THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONS
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    In this talk for senior school pupils, Jonathan Fenby outlines the causes of the French Revolution which began in 1789. He explains that this was the beginning of a cycle of revolutions followed by counter-revolutions and discusses how the French liked to believe that their country was a beacon of humanity with progressive values of […]

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  • 19. GAME OF QUEENS: THE WOMEN WHO MADE SIXTEENTH CENTURY EUROPE
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    Best-selling Tudor biographer Sarah Gristwood turns her expert eye to the Renaissance courts of Isabella of Castile, Margaret of Austria, Katherine of Aragon, Marguerite of Navarre, Anne Boleyn, Catherine de Medici, Mary Tudor, Elizabeth Tudor, Mary Stuart and others. An extraordinary cast of women who held power throughout the Continent in the face of great […]

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  • 21. MARGARET THATCHER: A LIFE AND LEGACY
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    As Britain’s first woman Prime Minister, and one of the most controversial figures in twentieth century Britain, few people have been more discussed than Margaret Thatcher. Preeminent academic Sir David Cannadine gives a historian’s perspective on the life, politics and legacy of this formidable leader. He is Dodge Professor of History at Princeton, and General […]

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  • 23. THE FIRST WORLD WAR: THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND LEGACY
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    The First World War still captures the imagination, but how do you paint a picture of people that are long gone? How do you put their existence in context with the manner in which they died, so that future generations retain a connection to the human impact of WW1 that transcends tales of strategic success […]

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  • 29. THE SECRET LIFE OF BLETCHLEY PARK
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    The code breakers of Bletchley Park played an absolutely crucial part in the Allied victory in the Second World War. Best-selling historian Sinclair McKay tackles the story of this iconic place, drawing on his conversations with many of the brilliant men and women who served there during the war.

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  • 31. NATO: SAFEGUARDING FREEDOM – 1949 TO THE PRESENT
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    General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, a former Commander of UK Land Forces, spent three years as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of Europe, working with our NATO allies. This talk outlines his thoughts on the history of NATO, the challenges it has faced and those that still confront it today as the ripples of discord sweep across […]

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  • 36. THEY CALLED IT PASSCHENDAELE
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    Lyn Macdonald remains revered as the great chronicler of the human experience of the Western Front and has recorded interviews with more veterans of the First World War than any other. In this talk she returns to the subject of her first book, the Battle of Passchendaele, fought over a hundred years ago in 1917, […]

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  • 38. THE SHEPHERD’S LIFE
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    James Rebanks’s personal memoir and history of life as a Lakeland shepherd was a surprise best-seller, inspired by reading W.H. Hudson’s iconic account of a Wiltshire shepherd as a young man. In this talk he explains the timeless nature of this special form of farming which, in the Lakeland fells, remains largely unchanged over the […]

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  • 39. A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYONE WHO EVER LIVED: THE STORIES IN OUR GENES
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    In a captivating journey through the expanding landscape of genetics, Adam Rutherford, geneticist and broadcaster, argues that our genomes should be read not as instruction manuals, but as epic poems. Touching on everything from Neanderthals to murder, redheads to race, and dead kings to plague, he decodes the mystery behind who we are and how […]

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  • 42. AFRICAN-AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS
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    In this talk to senior school pupils, Dr Gareth Davies explains what ‘Jim Crow’ was, and what sustained it before examining what destabilised and finally destroyed it. He finishes by discussing what replaced ‘Jim Crow’ and shows evidence of progress.

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  • SAS: ROGUE HEROES
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    The history of the SAS is an exhilarating tale of fearlessness and heroism, recklessness and tragedy. Ben Macintyre, best-selling author of Agent Zigzag, tells the story of David Stirling, the eccentric young officer who was given permission by Churchill to recruit the most ruthless soldiers he could find, thereby founding the most mysterious military organisation […]

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  • CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN THE VICTORIAN COUNTRYSIDE
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    In this talk for junior pupils at the Chalke Valley History Festival for Schools, Jamie Byrom tells of ‘Sarah’s Sad Story’. Using the local records in Devon from the Victorian era, he follows her from early childhood to her first job as a servant aged ten (although claiming to be thirteen) to her incarceration in […]

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  • 54. US FOREIGN POLICY SINCE THE COLD WAR
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    In this lecture to senior school pupils, Dr Christopher Fuller starts with an overview of a 100 years of history in a few minutes in order to understand the decisions made by policy-makers at the end of the Cold War. He covers the emergence of a unipolar age; the ‘end of history’ interpretation; how globalisation […]

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  • 63. M: MAXWELL KNIGHT, BRITAIN’S GREATEST SPYMASTER
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    Maxwell Knight was a paradox. A jazz obsessive and nature enthusiast, he is seen today as one of MI5’s greatest spymasters, a man who did more than any other to break up British fascism. Drawing on declassified documents, private family archives and interviews, Henry Hemming reveals not just the shadowy world of espionage but also […]

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  • 73. THE LIFE OF A ROMAN LEGIONARY
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    Ben Kane is a best-selling author of historical fiction who has immersed himself in Roman history. After all, he has not only walked Hadrian’s Wall in full Roman legionary kit, but has also recreated Hannibal’s route through the Alps. In this exciting and interactive event, Ben explains what it was like to live and fight […]

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  • 83. THE REFORMATION
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    In the 500th anniversary year of the Reformation, Professor Peter Marshall talks about this seminal event, which engulfed Europe and was one of the most highly-charged, bloody and transformative periods in our collective history. Ever since, it has also remained one of the most contested. 

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  • 84. THE CAUSES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
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    In this talk for secondary school pupils, Professor Frank McDonough examines the causes of WWII. He looks at long-term factors such as the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations and the depression following the Wall Street Crash, before turning to Hitler. He was an exceptional individual who had laid out his expansionist intentions as […]

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  • 88. EAST-WEST STREET: BACK TO THE 1930’s?
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    Acclaimed international human rights lawyer and winner of the 2016 Baillie Gifford Prize, Philippe Sands, traces the origins of the terms ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity,’ a journey that took him on a very personal quest to uncover the tragic fate of the Jewish communities in Lviv and the area around it in what is […]

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  • 89. JANE AUSTEN
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    Here the celebrated and best-selling biographer Claire Tomalin marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Jane Austen. Her Life of Jane Austen is unlikely to ever be surpassed. She presents this inimitable writer of some of the best-loved novels of all time as intensely intelligent, sensitive, tough and observant. Unmissable. 

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  • 98. CABINET’S FINEST HOUR: THE HIDDEN AGENDA OF MAY 1940
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    Drawing on documents and minutes of the British War Cabinet meetings of May 1940, former Foreign Secretary Lord Owen reveals the passionate debates within the Cabinet that prevented Britain from seeking a negotiated peace with Nazi Germany. He explains how the post-war denial of the existence of these debates has had far-reaching consequences for Britain’s […]

  • 105. THE FIGHTER PILOTS
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    We rightly venerate those who fought in the Battle of Britain but what of those other fighter pilots who fought in World War II? Keith Quilter was a naval carrier pilot flying Corsairs in the Pacific, while Colin Bell flew Mosquitoes over Germany as part of the Light Night Strike Force. For both, the danger […]

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  • 107. MAPS OF WAR: MAPPING CONFLICT THROUGH THE CENTURIES
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    In this talk, Professor Jeremy Black explains how the development of mapping from the Renaissance onwards provides us with an invaluable guide to the history of warfare. From the impact of printing through to the two World Wars and beyond, this is a fascinating and revealing talk from one of our very finest historians.

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  • 110. THIS ORIENT ISLE: ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND AND THE ISLAMIC WORLD
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    Professor Jerry Brotton turns his expert eye to Elizabeth I’s little-known relationship with the Islamic world, following her excommunication by the Pope in 1570. He reveals that England’s relations with the Muslim world were far more extensive than has ever been appreciated and that their influence was felt across the political, commercial and domestic landscape […]

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  • 113. LAWRENCE OF BURMA: DADLAND
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    Winner of the 2016 Costa Biography prize, Keggie Carew, recounts how, as her ageing father descended into dementia, she undertook a quest to learn about his past. In World War II Tom Carew was parachuted behind the lines into France, then Burma where he fought with Burmese guerrillas helping not only to defeat Japan but […]

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  • 121. WAS HITLER A POPULAR DICTATOR?
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    In this talk for junior schools, Chris Culpin shows how Hitler disdained democracy and thereby defeated his political opponents leaving “One people, one nation, one leader”. Was he popular? He was certainly successful as there was no opposition, nor opposition newspapers. This was partly through fear but also as a result of brilliant propaganda with […]

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  • 123. BOOTS ON THE GROUND: BRITAIN AND HER ARMY SINCE 1945
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    In May 1945, the German High Command surrendered to the Allies on Lüneberg Heath. Seventy years later, the British Army finally left their garrisons next to the Heath. General the Lord Dannatt, former Chief of General Staff, follows the compelling story of the British Army since then, tracing Britain’s transformation from a leading military power […]

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  • 124. THE ISLAMIC ENLIGHTENMENT: THE MODERN STRUGGLE BETWEEN FAITH AND REASON
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    The Muslim world has often been accused of failing to modernise, reform and adapt. But, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day, Islamic society in its Middle Eastern heartlands has in fact been transformed by modern ideals and practices. Acclaimed author Christopher de Bellaigue covers 200 turbulent years of Middle Eastern […]

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  • 127. COPENHAGEN AND AFTER
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    Michael Frayn is one of our most successful and revered playwrights and Copenhagen one of his highly acclaimed and award-winning plays. In this very special talk he discusses the play’s subject: the visit of German atomic scientist Werner Heisenberg to Copenhagen in 1941 to visit fellow scientists Margrethe and Niels Bohr and their subsequent discussions […]

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  • 128. AMERICA TRUMPED: HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
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    Who better than the charismatic broadcaster Matt Frei to explain the extraordinary phenomenon which was the then President of the United States of America? The award-winning journalist was Washington correspondent for the BBC and Channel 4 News for many years and recently made the documentary ‘Meet the Trumps: From Immigrant to President.’ So how did […]

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  • 130. MAN OF IRON: THOMAS TELFORD AND THE BUILDING OF BRITAIN
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    Thomas Telford was a shepherd boy who changed the world with his revolutionary engineering and whose genius we still benefit from today. Julian Glover’s original portrait of the great engineer covers decades of gloriously obsessive, prodigiously productive energy, building churches, canals, bridges and the backbone of our national road network.

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  • 137. THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE: THE GREATEST SIEGE IN HISTORY
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    In 1453 the hordes of Islam are at the walls of Constantinople. The fate of all Europe hangs on a heroic garrison who’d answered the call of the last Roman Emperor. Would their courage be enough? James Heneage tells the story of the most thrilling siege in history and explains why catastrophe in 1453 turned […]

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  • 139. SPIES AND SECRET AGENTS: IN FICTION AND REAL LIFE
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    Charlie Higson is the best-selling author of the Young Bond series of novels, and Ben Macintyre the author of a number of best-selling books about real spies of World War II and the Cold War. Here they come together with spy novelist Charlie Cumming to discuss secret agents, real and imaginary, in a highly entertaining […]

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  • 142. GENTLEMEN BEHAVING BADLY: EIGHTEENTH CENTURY RAKES AND RASCALS
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    When a pious Swiss traveller visited London in the 1720s, he complained that ‘debauch runs riot with an unblushing countenance’. But just how badly behaved was the average English gentleman? Drawing on diaries, letters and gallows confessions, award-winning author Antonia Hodgson explores the lives of several fascinating rogues – from the amiable to the downright […]

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  • 151. EMPIRES IN THE SUN: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE MASTERY OF AFRICA
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    In this talk about the men and ideas that radically changed the course of world history, Lawrence James investigates and analyses how, within a hundred years, Europeans persuaded and coerced Africa into becoming a subordinate part of the modern world. The continent proved to be a magnet for the high-minded, the philanthropic, the unscrupulous and […]

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