NEW PODCAST! THIS IS HISTORY

Today I'm launching a podcast about the Plantagenets - Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine and their children

Okay. So over the whole summer I’ve been working on something kind of cool.

If you’ve been paying close attention over the years, you’ll know I’m pretty into the Plantagenet dynasty.

Their rule spanned more than three centuries and in that time they transformed England almost beyond recognition. They also provided us with some of the wildest stories of feuding, betrayal and backstabbing in the whole of British history.

Plantagenet history gives us something extraordinary: a family soap opera whose consequences forged the world we live in today.

So that’s why I’ve come back to the story in my new podcast series, This Is History: A Dynasty To Die For. Over 24 episodes, released twice-weekly, I’ll be unpacking the story of the first generation of Plantagenets.

The story begins with Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine assembling a Plantagenet ‘empire’ which reached from the borders of Scotland to the Pyrenees. As it continues we see the Plantagenets triumph - and then collapse into bitter infighting, whose consequences are brutal, bloody and sometimes almost unbelievable.

If you enjoyed my book The Plantagenets or TV shows like my two Britain’s Bloodiest… series, then this is another, even more in-depth dive into that world. If you haven’t got around them yet, this is the perfect place to start.

The first episodes are released today. They’re lush, cinematic, tightly crafted stories which try and get you up close and personal with the characters I love. For the next three months I’ll be releasing two new episodes of This Is History each week, along with a special ‘bonus’ episode for subscribers.

You can listen to the podcast here, or search for This Is History wherever you get your podcasts. The extra episodes are exclusively available via Apple podcasts.

Enjoy the ride.

Dan x