Episode 89. Sexual Heresies
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Joy Dixon about her 2026 book about Victorian sexology and its relationship to religious faith, Sexual Heresies.
Episode 88. Elizabeth Robins in Henfield
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Alan Barwick, curator of Henfield Museum, West Sussex, about the village’s most distinguished resident, the actress, writer and suffragist, Elizabeth Robins (1862-1952) who moved to the manor house, Backsettown in 1908.
Episode 87. Shaw’s Corner in Hertfordshire
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Philippa Parker, leader of the Letchworth Local History Group and room guide at the National Trust’s Shaw’s Corner about the playwright and polemicist George Bernard Shaw’s life in Hertfordshire and support for the Garden City movement in that county.
Episode 86. Bessie Quinn: Survivor Spirit
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Ursula Howard about her 2022 biography of her grandmother, Bessie Quinn: Survivor Spirit.
Episode 85. Radicals: The Working Classes and the Making of Modern Britain
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Geoff Andrews about his 2026 book, Radicals: The Working Classes and the Making of Modern Britain.
Episode 84. The Vital Message: Continuing Education in Cambridge
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Mark Freeman about his 2023 book, The Vital Message, which explores the growth of extra-mural education at Cambridge University in the post-war years.
Episode 83. The Fry Art Gallery
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Philip Neale, the Public Relations Manager of the Fry Art Gallery about its establishment in 1987 and its impressive collection of works by artists, such as Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious and John Aldridge who settled in the picturesque Essex village of Great Bardfield.
Episode 82. Letchworth: Industrial and Garden City
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Philippa Parker, leader of the Letchworth Local History Group, about their book, Industrial Letchworth: The First Garden City, 1903-1920, which was published by Hertfordshire Publications in 2021.
Episode 81. The Shoemakers Museum
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Tim Crumplin, the Business Archivist of the Shoemakers Museum in Street, Somerset, near Glastonbury, about the Quaker Clark dynasty, their shoe-making business and the new museum building housing four permanent galleries that was commissioned by the Alfred Gillett Trust, opening in September 2025.
Episode 80. Christ’s Hospital Museum
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Laura Kidner, the Curator of Christ’s Hospital Museum in the former infirmary building at the school’s 120-acre site outside Horsham in West Sussex. Moving here from central London in 1902 to a purpose-built school that was expressly designed by the architects Sir Aston Webb and Ingress Bell, Christ’s Hospital retains links to the City’s establishment, being uniquely established by Royal Charter in the 1550s to provide board and education to the orphan children of poor Londoners.
Episode 79. Charitable Giving in Victorian Britain
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Sarah Flew about her 2025 book Charitable Giving in Victorian Britain : The Legacy of Samuel Loyd Jones which provides an unusually deep insight into mid-Victorian philanthropic giving through the donations books of this wealthy banker who was ennobled as 1st Baron Overstone.
Episode 78. Pageant Fever
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Mark Freeman about Restaging the Past, an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project that was set up to recover the fascinating and varied history of the English Pageant since its founding with the Sherborne Pageant of 1905.
Episode 77. Sidney and Beatrice Webb
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Michael Ward about his 2024 biographical reassessment of the social reformers Sidney and Beatrice Webb, the founders of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Episode 76. David Parr House, Cambridge
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Annabelle Campbell and Bob Hewis about David Parr House and how this Arts and Crafts time capsule in Cambridge has been preserved for posterity.
Episode 75. Shell Shocked Prophets: Chaplains and the Great War
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the expert on the history of religion and the First World War, Dr Linda Parker, about her book, Shell-Shocked Prophets, which tells the story of how trench experience changed the social attitudes of Anglican chaplains.
Episode 74. David Jones in the Great War
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Thomas Dilworth about the life of the great modernist painter and poet, David Jones and his epic novel-length poem about the First World War, In Parenthesis.
Episode 73. York and the Rowntrees
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the former Secretary of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Stephen Pittam about the Quaker Rowntree family in York and their philanthropic influence as employers and poverty investigators.
Episode 72. The Ladybird Books
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the acknowledged expert on the Ladybird Books, Helen Day, whose website, ladybirdflyawayhome.com is a major repository of information about the post-war children’s publisher of storybooks, Wills and Hepworth.
Episode 71. The Stockton and Darlington Railway: “The Quaker Line”
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with two Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, Caroline Hardie and Professor Alan Townsend about the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway on 27th September 1825, its Quaker origins and the planned Bicentenary celebrations.
Episode 70. The Yellow Book and Decadent Women
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the TV producer and biographer, Jad Adams, about his long-standing interest in decadence in the 1890s and the “New Woman” generation of writers and illustrators who contributed to the notorious Yellow Book.