Gallus Girls And Wayward Women (a Herstory Of The British Isles)

Mary Mallon emigrated to America as teenager in 1883.  She became famous for being the first person in the Untied States to be identified as an asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid Fever.  Mary is believed to have infected 53 people over a period of time, although it's assumed the number is much higher, and out of those who caught it from Mary, 3 people died. Mary has come to be so strongly identified with the spread of disease that it is now commonly believed she was responsible for hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths. This show takes a more intricate look at Mary and her situation, and what eventually became of her. Opening music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter.  All other music used in the show is from copyright free music sites.

Although Constance Markiewicz had been elected to parliament before her but refused to take her seat, Nancy Astor was the American whirlwind who became the first female British MP in 1919. She did a heap of good, but life is complicated and HER life was not without a large dose of scandal and controversy.  Opening music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter.  All other music used in the show is from copyright free music sites.

In early 1817, a mystery woman showed up in the town of Almondsbury in Gloucester, England. She seemed disoriented, and when she spoke her words were incomprehensible to English ears. The only thing anyone could discern was that she called herself “Caraboo.” The young lady was taken in by a Mr. and Mrs Worrall, and several days after her arrival, a man named Manuel Enesso  appeared and said he could understand Princess Caraboo’s strange language. Her remarkable story, which he “translated,” was a sensational one, complete with pirates, death, and daring escape...

Teeny tiny Katherine Howard was Henry VIII's fifth and youngest wife. He met Katherine when he was almost fifty, and stuck in a marriage that made him miserable. Katherine, young and full of life enchanted him, and she was still only a teenager when she was ‘showed openly as Queen’ at Hampton Court in August 1540, having married Henry the day he sent Thomas Cromwell, who’d arranged his marriage to Anne of Cleves, to the block. However, poor Katherine was Queen of England for only a short while, and her  life, just as short, came to a tragic and violent end. Up until fairly recently, she's been painted as a bit of an empty headed bimbette who may have deserved what she got, but thankfully we (well, most of us, sigh) live in more enlightened times and we can take stock of what we know of Katherine's life, and at least give this young girl the sympathy she deserves.

Jessica Mitford was the communist ‘red sheep’ of the aristocratic, fascist sympathising Mitford clan. Known as ‘Decca’, she was the sister of novelist Nancy, Diana (who was the wife of fascist Oswald Mosley) and Unity, who was the subject of our last episode and who was obsessed with Hitler. Her own family, no strangers to bad behaviour and controversy, regarded Jessica as the one who went too far, it was she they regarded as beyond the pale, while at the same time two of Jessica's sisters were card carrying, Jew hating, fanatical Nazis.  Opening music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter.  All other music used in the show is from copyright free music sites.

Although the rest of her family were fascist sympathisers of one sort or another, which was common among upper classes in inter-war Britain, Unity Mitford became an extreme right winger, a fanatical fascist who described herself as a "jew hater" and talked at length about how much she loved Hitler. Her life goal was to meet him, and she moved to Munich when she was 19 so she could learn German and thus be able to speak with him when the magical encounter took place. Due to her elevated social status, she successfully managed to insert herself in Hitler's inner circle. Join us as we talk about the (short) life and times of Unity Mitford!

Described by some as "the Sarah Bernhardt of opera", Mary Garden was an actress, a talented singer, and quite the character. She was famous for  her formidable  vocal range and she first rose to success in Paris during the first decade of the 20th century. A few years later, she would be a household name in America as an operatic superstar, and starred in operas in several major American cities. Later on Mary would appear in two silent films made by Samuel Goldwyn. Opening music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter.  All other music used in the show is from copyright free music sites.

We go back once again to Tudor times to look at the life of Henry VIII's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. She has gone down in history (unfairly) as the ugly fat dim one, the one Henry was so repelled by, he couldn't consummate the marriage. Anne was Henry’s wife for just six months, making her the shortest reigning of all his queens and has subsequently been dismissed as little more than a hiccup in the history of England’s most-married monarch. However - there is far more to this story than the frankly humiliating spin that has been doing the rounds since 1540. Anne may not have been to Henry's liking, but how she responded to being rejected by him proves that she was nothing like the hapless victim of legend.  Opening music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter.  All other music used in the show is from copyright free music sites.

Alexandra Feodorovna, formerly Princess Alix Victoria Helena Louise Beatrice Von Hesse and By Rhine, was grand daughter to Queen Victoria, daughter of Princess Alice of Great Britain, and the last Tsarina of Russia. As a young woman, Alex fell in love with Nicholas, the heir to the Russian throne. The feelings were mutual, and they were married, but instead of living happily ever after, their lives were set on course for tragedy of epic proportions, the repercussions of which are still felt to this day, over a hundred years later.

One of the most beautiful and enigmatic actresses of Hollywood's first century,  the words ‘dark angel’ summed up Merle’s hauntingly beautiful, exotic looks perfectly. She was, in fact, Anglo-Indian, something which back in those days would have put paid to any film career if it had been common knowledge. For most of her life, Merle claimed she was born in Australia — but the racism and snobbery of that era forced Merle to spend a lifetime hiding the fact that she was born to a poverty stricken mother of part-Anglo Indian part-Maori heritage in India. However, that wasn't the only skeleton in the closet, and despite her success and the fact she had a life most people would envy, she basically  lived her life as a lie, never able to be her true self, and hiding the truth of her background from close friends, husbands and her own children. Opening music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter.  All other music used in the show is from copyright free music sites.

Rising from humble origins during a brutal and turbulent period of British history, Bess became the second most powerful woman in England after the Queen. She used her skills to navigate the risky world of the Tudor court and outlived monarchs and husbands along the way, as well as bearing 8 children and building an empire. Few royal courtiers would climb as high as Bess did, and she made some enemies in her lifetime, and probably due to this, many early  biographers (male) have portrayed Bess as a hard, scheming and proud woman who worked her way through four husbands and managed to get her hands on all their fortunes when they died. But OF COURSE there's more to Bess than this. Opening music by Stefan Kartenburg, featuring Dimitri Artmenko on strings, and it's from dig.ccMixter.  All other music used in the show is from copyright free music sites.