Dark Histories from the Secret University.

Richard Sugg

This podcast slithers, oozes, writhes and flickers with all things dark, forbidden, strange and tabooed. It also tries to offer something very new. For over 15 years I lectured at the universities of Cardiff and Durham. It was a great great life. I got paid to write and to think. I got paid to share these passions with some brilliant and unforgettable students. Unfortunately, students now have to pay staggering amounts of money for that privilege. Welcome, then, to the Secret University. Its ideas, its magic, its joys are endless. And it is free. Richard Sugg. @DrSugg read less
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The Cottingley Fairy Photographs and the Centenary of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Coming of the Fairies.
Dec 15 2022
The Cottingley Fairy Photographs and the Centenary of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Coming of the Fairies.
In 1920 two Yorkshire cousins pulled off the hoax of the century. And two years later Arthur Conan Doyle published one of the strangest books of the twentieth century.

Episodes

T.S. Eliot. Four Quartets. Two: East Coker.
Apr 1 2023
T.S. Eliot. Four Quartets. Two: East Coker.
As you may know, these four great poems of the twentieth century are in part meditations on time. This second of the set is introduced with stories of World War Two, from my family and that of my remarkable old friend, Elisabeth Hudson. These touch on the story of the extraordinary spy, Christine Granville, showcased recently on Twitter. Holding Elisabeth's original copy of East Coker set me thinking of her holding it in 1940, when it was new, and when her brother was due to become a great wartime spy himself. In 1944, Christine saved his life.
T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. One: Burnt Norton.
Mar 19 2023
T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. One: Burnt Norton.
One of the great poems of the twentieth century, and one which we might call a kind of Anglo-American epic. Starting with Burnt Norton here, from the copy given to me by my great old friend Elisabeth, bought in 1941, and with her til her death in 2008. The great novelist John Fowles offers a nice way into this poem: 'The word is the most imprecise of signs. Only a science-obsessed age could fail to comprehend that this is its great virtue, not its defect.'
Introducing The Real Vampires: Live Burial and Vampire Terror in Greece and Bulgaria.
Mar 16 2023
Introducing The Real Vampires: Live Burial and Vampire Terror in Greece and Bulgaria.
Join me for extremes of terror, wonder and hope. This is a colourful glimpse into the world of The Real Vampires, and my personal journeys: through Europe to Greece in 1988; and on into the world of vampires and poltergeists since 2013. I'll be covering these extensively in a new book, We Need to Talk About Ghosts. The photo shows the author in 1988 in Venice, not long returned from Athens and nearby Greek islands. Little did I know at this time that I had been just 50 miles from Vampire Country.
THE INTERNATIONAL PAWTRAIT GALLERY: SEVEN GREAT DOGS FROM HISTORY.
Mar 11 2023
THE INTERNATIONAL PAWTRAIT GALLERY: SEVEN GREAT DOGS FROM HISTORY.
Everyone knows that animals bring people together. But how ON EARTH do dogs get back together with lost owners? Join me for a journey of unforgettable wonder, adventure, mystery and love, with seven great dogs - beginning with my mother and Pat, seen here in 1956, on her 21st birthday. You can read many more amazing dog stories in my book, A Singing Mouse at Buckingham Palace. My novel, Kali the Wonder Dog, is a great historic romp through 1930s Britain - highly recommended for anyone who loves dogs, and hates racists.
Vampotainment in Regency London.
Mar 5 2023
Vampotainment in Regency London.
What would you get if you spliced together Byron, Polidori, and the celebrity actor T.P. Cooke, the Harrison Ford of Regency theatre, for a musical vampire romp on stage? The answer is: The Vampire, or the Bride of the Isles. Be afraid. For all the wrong reasons.
The John Muir Challenge: Episode 3.
Feb 25 2023
The John Muir Challenge: Episode 3.
The challenge is simple: for Muir to carry you away, body and soul, into the wilds, dangers and tumultuous songs of nature in less than half an hour. And this one has a doggie. If the ending of this doesn't make you cry, I won't be your friend anymore.
Six Crimson Drops from Real Vampire Country.
Feb 18 2023
Six Crimson Drops from Real Vampire Country.
In the run-up to the long awaited paperback edition of my book, The Real Vampires, six crimson drops here thrust under the microscope - bringing up many wild surprises. What did vampires really eat? What should you do if you woke up in your coffin? How did you make a vampire? How could you stop a vampire? Can you really die of terror? And just what was the unexpected link between Polidori's The Vampyre and Fifty Shades of Grey? No need to tie yourself in knots puzzling that one out: just sit back, pour a drink and... enjoy yourself; it's stranger than you think.
John Keats: The Eve of St Agnes.
Jan 28 2023
John Keats: The Eve of St Agnes.
Was there ever any more ravishing poem in all the nineteenth century? Step in with me from the frost and sleet, and behold fair Madeline, like a mermaid in seaweed. This poem could change your life.
The John Muir Challenge: Episode Two.
Jan 21 2023
The John Muir Challenge: Episode Two.
Once upon a time there was a strange, wild force of nature. His name was John Muir. Let him carry you away now, into the summer mountains of the Sierra. You'll really believe you are there. Walking boots optional.
The John Muir Challenge: Episode One.
Dec 31 2022
The John Muir Challenge: Episode One.
If anyone can make you happy in less than twenty minutes, it is the utterly magical and irrepressible John Muir: hardier than a wolf, nimbler than a mountain goat, happier than a child. Take the John Muir challenge and see for yourself. You'll really believe you are right there in the Sierra Nevada, summer 1869.
T.S. Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Dec 26 2022
T.S. Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
T.S. Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Wordsworth in Winter.
Dec 24 2022
Wordsworth in Winter.
A Lake District childhood, as recalled by Wordsworth. Hear the ice chiming like a bell, 250 years later.
Keith Richards and the Redlands Drugs Trial.
Dec 17 2022
Keith Richards and the Redlands Drugs Trial.
From 25 June to 1 July 1967 there occurred perhaps the most explosive and significant seven days in the whole of the 1960s: one week when the Old Guard of the British Establishment tried to take a long overdue revenge on all the forces of youth and change which it could not control. The real story of the Redlands Trial offers a darkly comical glimpse into the fears, repressions and twisted imaginings of the British elite and the respectable middle classes. Join me for a journey back into the Summer of Love, here on Keith Richards' 79th birthday.
The Cottingley Fairy Photographs: a British National Treasure.
Dec 16 2022
The Cottingley Fairy Photographs: a British National Treasure.
The Cottingley Fairy Photographs were the hoax of the twentieth century. Just how did two young girls in Yorkshire convince Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? And what did the whole long running saga mean to Britain in particular in the decades that followed? We unravel this densely complex story 100 years after Doyle published his strangest book, The Coming of the Fairies. You'll be surprised.
The Cottingley Fairy Photographs and the Centenary of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Coming of the Fairies.
Dec 15 2022
The Cottingley Fairy Photographs and the Centenary of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Coming of the Fairies.
In 1920 two Yorkshire cousins pulled off the hoax of the century. And two years later Arthur Conan Doyle published one of the strangest books of the twentieth century.
Blood Drinking at European Executions. Forgotten History from Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires.
Dec 10 2022
Blood Drinking at European Executions. Forgotten History from Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires.
Have you ever seen this on period drama? In Austria, Germany and Denmark, people routinely drank hot blood for medicine at beheadings. And in Sweden, things could get worse. One thing we are not taught at school is this: James I refused corpse medicine; Charles II made his own corpse medicine; and Charles I was made into corpse medicine.  From my best-selling book, Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: the History of Corpse Medicine from the Middle Ages to the Falun Gong.
Rupert Brooke. Three great forgotten poems.
Dec 8 2022
Rupert Brooke. Three great forgotten poems.
With the exception of poems by my father, the poetry of Rupert Brooke was the first I read avidly, after stumbling on a copy of his works in our school library aged 14 or 15. He is perhaps best known now for war poems and Grantchester, but these three I think are probably his best poems - and give a tantalising flavour of what he might have done, if not cut off by war at just 27.
Ghosts of Christmas Present. M.R. James's story, Canon Alberic's Scrapbook.
Dec 7 2022
Ghosts of Christmas Present. M.R. James's story, Canon Alberic's Scrapbook.
In this Christmas season Dark Histories will be telling some classic ghost stories, in keeping with tradition; and arguing that some of the very best of this genre are always better heard, than seen. One of my favourites here, which produced some memorable classes back at Durham University, when I ran the MA module, Literature of the Supernatural. Can you guess the point at which several students jumped and squealed?
Ghosts of Christmas Present. M.R. James's The Mezzotint. Part the Second.
Dec 6 2022
Ghosts of Christmas Present. M.R. James's The Mezzotint. Part the Second.
In this Christmas season Dark Histories will be telling some classic ghost stories, in keeping with tradition; and arguing that some of the very best of this genre are always better heard, than seen.
Ghosts of Christmas Present. M.R. James's The Mezzotint. Part the First.
Dec 6 2022
Ghosts of Christmas Present. M.R. James's The Mezzotint. Part the First.
In this Christmas season Dark Histories will be telling some classic ghost stories, in keeping with tradition; and arguing that some of the very best of this genre are always better heard, than seen.