Post Type ArchivesEpisode

Bonus Podcast: Genealogy 201 – Parish Records, Military History & the Secrets Hidden in Old Newspapers and Findmypast

on July 13, 2026 July 13, 2026

Anglotopia Podcast | Discussing UK British Travel, History, Culture, London, British Slang, and More!

Bonus Podcast: Genealogy 201 - Parish Records, Military History & the Secrets Hidden in Old Newspapers and Findmypast

00:00 / 1:02:28

In this second sponsored episode with Findmypast — the follow-up to our Genealogy 101 introduction — Jonathan Thomas and Jen Baldwin, Research Specialist at Findmypast, go deeper into the records, techniques, and stories that turn a nervous beginner into a confident family historian. The episode covers the extraordinary richness of the 1921 census and 1939 register, why the newspaper archive is the place where ancestors stop being names and start being people, how the Industrial Revolution left its fingerprints across every family tree, the truth about name changes and spelling variations (it was almost never Ellis Island), how to avoid drowning in common surnames like Thomas or Smith, the unexpected discoveries that make genealogy so addictive — including Jen’s own Cornish mail-order bride ancestor, an Irish great-great-grandfather with two arrests across two countries, and Audrey Thompson the World War II rat-catching champion — and how to connect all of it to the great currents of British history. The episode also covers parish records, military records, DNA testing, the role of offline archives, and the mindset that keeps family history a lifelong joy rather than a frustrating quest for perfection. If you haven’t heard the first episode, Genealogy 101, go back and listen to that one first.

Takeaways

The 1921 census and 1939 register work best as a pair — together they bookend the interwar period, and used in combination they can anchor a family from living memory all the way back through the Victorian era. The 1921 is the most detailed census ever taken in England and Wales; the 1939 register is the only census-style record with full birth dates and tracks maiden-to-married name changes for women.
The 1939 register is the foundational document of the NHS — a living document updated for decades after the war, making it uniquely valuable for women’s research. ARP warden and Home Guard volunteer roles recorded in its margins bring the home front of World War II vividly to life.
Less than 10% of historical records are currently available online. The other 90% live in county record offices, local archives, churches, and museums — and going to them in person, touching the original documents, is an irreplaceable experience that no screen can fully replicate.
Names were almost never changed at Ellis Island. Spelling variations in records happen because clerks wrote what they heard, literacy levels were inconsistent, and people adapted their names to the culture they found themselves in. You are researching people, not names — and building a mountain of evidence is the only reliable way to confirm you have the right person.
Common surnames are a solvable problem: search by address rather than name, find an unusual first name in the same family, use occupations as a generational signature, and use Findmypast’s wildcard and name-variation search tools to cast a wider net before narrowing down.
Military records are one of the most common gateways to unexpected discovery — attestation papers, service records, pension files, and medal rolls fill in the specifics of what an ancestor actually did, where they served, and what happened to them. The Pals battalions of World War I, where entire communities enlisted together and died together, are particularly powerful to research.
Parish records predate civil registration by centuries — the earliest on Findmypast go back to the 1300s — and the parish chest records that accompany them reveal an ancestor’s role in their community: tax records, poor relief, bastardy orders, apprenticeship documents, and more that have nothing to do with baptism but everything to do with understanding a life.
DNA testing adds a powerful new dimension to family research — not as a replacement for documentary evidence, but as a corroborating tool that can confirm suspected connections, break through brick walls by connecting you to unknown cousins, and reveal migration patterns that the paper records haven’t caught yet.
The best cure for a genealogy brick wall is to switch branches entirely. Fresh eyes on a different part of the family tree — maternal lines, in-laws, siblings — often reveals the clue that unlocks the original problem. The answer to who your Thomas ancestor was is sometimes hiding in his wife’s maiden name records.
Replace the goal of a perfect family tree with the practice of curiosity. The satisfaction of genealogy is not in the quantity of ancestors collected but in the two-in-the-morning moment when everything suddenly clicks — and that moment always opens a hundred new questions. This is a lifelong hobby, and patience rewards it far more than brilliance does.

Soundbites

“She answers a mail order bride ad in Cornwall. She travels by herself across the Atlantic, gets on a train, goes to the highest incorporated town in Colorado at ten thousand feet, marries this man sight unseen. He dies in a mining accident. She waits a few months, answers another ad, gets on another train with her kids, moves to Nebraska. They shake hands, go to the courthouse, get married. That’s not as unusual as you might think.” — Jen on her Cornish ancestor Mary Daniels and the extraordinary ordinary lives migration records reveal.
“Their name was not changed at Ellis Island. Did it happen occasionally? Yes. But not because someone at a table said, I think you look more like a Smith. Names change because clerks wrote what they heard. You are researching people, not names.” — Jen on the biggest myth in genealogy.
“I found a gentleman who fills the census in black ink — except for the marriage column, which is a giant red D that he has clearly spent a lot of time on. It’s written over and over. You can see the imprint on the page. He felt very passionately about his divorce.” — Jen on the 1921 census entry that is worth the price of a subscription on its own.
“She volunteers for the Women’s Land Army and the next thing you know she is the country’s top rat catcher. She enters the competition, travels the country giving presentations, getting her picture taken by local media — the top rat catcher fighting to save Britain from the Nazis. Because we needed the crops.” — Jen on Audrey Thompson, one of her favorite unexpected discoveries.
“He gets arrested twice. Once in Ireland and once in Wales — the situation in Wales was a bar fight, quite literally, covered in the newspaper in a lot of detail. He ends up in Cork prison, then Wales, then Liverpool, then Pennsylvania. I know all of that because of newspapers, arrest records, and a passenger list. The records all connect to tell a much deeper story.” — Jen on tracing an Irish ancestor through famine, crime, and migration.
“There’s only about a percent of historical materials actually available online. There are more records sitting in archives and churches and museums and little nuggets all over the country. Go to the county records office. Go to the cemetery. Touch grass. Actually get away from the screen — because it connects you with the past in a way you could never duplicate in an online experience.” — Jen on why physical archives still matter.
“The 1939 register is the foundational records for the National Health Service. It was a living document for decades after the war. When women got married from 1939 on, you have their maiden name recorded and then they would go in and scratch out the maiden name and write their married name over the top. For women’s research, it’s particularly important.” — Jen on why the 1939 register is so valuable.
“I went to the church in St. Dunstan’s Parish in the East. They still have the same baptismal font sitting in the building. And the steps down to the Thames along Radcliffe Highway are still in the same place as they were in the 1600s when my ancestors would have been there. I believe I’m the first person in our direct line to go back to London since they left in 1635. That first trip over was extraordinarily special.” — Jen on the moment family history becomes real.
“In a Pals battalion, they recruited whole battalions from the same community. All those men were neighbors before the war. They went to school together, they married each other’s sisters, they went to church together. You get this situation where you’re looking at an entire village of people who enlist and then get caught up in a battle and hundreds of them die in the same night. This is more than just a pedigree chart. This is an opportunity to remember them.” — Jen on World War I Pals battalions and why war memorials matter.
“You make a discovery and you’ve been researching this for hours or sometimes months or years, and you finally find it. It’s two o’clock in the morning and you are literally jumping up and down in front of your computer. And then you realize I found this thing — but now I have a hundred more questions. That’s the bit that keeps people coming back.” — Jen on the true nature of the genealogy addiction.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction & Sponsor Message — Findmypast and the Genealogy 201 premise
02:07 Picking Up Where We Left Off — A recap of Genealogy 101 and the call to action
02:32 The 1921 Census and 1939 Register as a Pair — Bookending the interwar period
03:30 What Makes the 1921 Census So Special — Employer names, divorce, orphan data, and handwriting
03:37 The Man with the Giant Red D — A census entry that tells an entire emotional story
05:00 The 1939 Register — ARP wardens, full birth dates, maiden names, and the NHS connection
07:42 Why Was There No 1931 or 1941 Census? — A brief recap for new listeners
08:51 What the 1939 Register Tells Us That a Census Can’t — Women’s names, volunteer war roles, and evacuated children
10:06 Newspapers as the Place Where Ancestors Come Alive — The 19th-century explosion and what it captured
11:30 The Three Brothers and Their Mother — A World War I story told entirely through local newspapers
12:45 The Industrial Revolution and Migration — Following opportunity from countryside to city to colony
13:30 Mary Daniels from Cornwall — A mail order bride, Colorado, a mining accident, Nebraska, and the homestead that’s still in the family
17:09 Why Ancestors Move Around — Following jobs, the 20-mile radius rule, and how records help you track them
19:38 What Findmypast Offers Beyond the Census — Partnerships, niche collections, and British-based expertise
21:00 Metropolitan Police Records, Parish Records, and the Federation of Family History Societies
21:53 The National Archives Partnership — Military records, crime records, and the Licenses to Pass Beyond the Seas
23:40 Jen’s Own Ancestor in the 1635 Passenger List — Henry Collins, three children, four servants, and a socioeconomic revelation
24:55 Not Everything Is Online — Less than 10% of records are digitized; why you should still visit archives
26:58 Even the Emperor of Japan Uses Archives — A digression on Oxford, shipping records, and the world’s most patient researcher
28:24 Name Changes and Spelling Variations — Why Ellis Island didn’t do it and what actually happened
28:58 The Jacobs/Jacobich Problem — And Jen’s own family dropping the E off Browne
31:43 You Are Researching People, Not Names — Common sense is queen
32:29 Findmypast’s Name Variation Search and Wildcard Tool — How to cast a wider net
33:37 Dealing with Common Surnames — Occupations, addresses, unusual first names, and process of elimination
35:30 Suddenly Grateful for Abel — Jonathan’s uncommon grandfather and why unusual names are genealogical gold
35:48 Unexpected Discoveries That Make It All Feel Alive — Military service, migration stories, and the records that connect
36:02 A Famine Survivor, Two Arrests, and a Bar Fight in Wales — Jen’s Irish ancestor’s journey
37:56 Audrey Thompson, Top Rat Catcher — How the Women’s Land Army and newspaper archive combine
39:00 True Crime in the Records — A domestic servant, a storm, an affair caught in a parish church, and the real-life whodunit
40:50 British Remembrance vs. American Remembrance — Plaques in banks, poppies, and why the UK doesn’t forget
42:17 Findmypast’s War Memorial Collection — Photographed memorials with every name listed, accessible from Colorado
44:00 The Pals Battalions — Entire villages enlisting, fighting, and dying together in World War I
45:22 Visit War Memorials When You Travel — What they tell you about a village’s past and the state of its memory
45:30 Perfectionism vs. Curiosity — Why the chase is better than the finish line
47:24 Up at Two in the Morning — The two o’clock discovery and the hundred questions it opens
48:02 When People Don’t Find the Castle They Expected — Why your ordinary ancestors are more interesting than any aristocrat
49:38 Three Assignments for After This Episode — Parish records, switching branches, and citing your sources
49:59 Parish Records Explained — Baptism vs. birth, burial vs. death, parish chest records, and the records from the 1300s
53:31 Why Switching Branches Solves Problems — Fresh eyes, new records, and how the puzzle connects
55:27 Why Citing Your Sources Matters — Future you will forget, and Findmypast Workspaces can help
57:46 The Mindset That Turns a Beginner Into a Historian — Replace perfection with curiosity, embrace the lifelong hobby
59:09 Jen’s Own Family Tree Back to 1635 — St. Dunstan’s Parish, Radcliffe Highway, the baptismal font, and being the first to return
1:00:41 Jonathan’s Takeaway — Time to call grandma and fill in the family tree
1:01:54 Wrap-Up and Sponsor Outro — Findmypast free trial links and an invitation to share discoveries

Video Version

Bonus Podcast: Genealogy 101 – Everything You Need to Start Tracing Your British & Irish Family History with Findmypast

on July 13, 2026 July 13, 2026

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Anglotopia Podcast | Discussing UK British Travel, History, Culture, London, British Slang, and More!

Bonus Podcast: Genealogy 101 - Everything You Need to Start Tracing Your British & Irish Family History with Findmypast

00:00 / 48:50

In this sponsored episode of the Anglotopia Podcast — brought to you by Findmypast, one of the world’s leading family history websites — Jonathan Thomas sits down with Jen Baldwin, Research Specialist at Findmypast and a professional genealogist since 2010, for a warm, practical, and genuinely inspiring introduction to British and Irish family history research. Jen specializes in British social history and the British diaspora — exactly the intersection where family stories meet the great sweep of British history — and her own family tree reaches back to London in 1635. In this first of two episodes, Jen and Jonathan cover everything a complete beginner needs to get started: why family history is so addictive, how to interview living relatives before the memories are lost, what records to look for at home, the cornerstone British records (civil registration from 1837, the census from 1841, parish records, military records, and the extraordinary British Newspaper Archive), the common mistakes that trip up beginners, how to track ancestors who came to America via Canada or Australia, the surprising political dramas hidden inside census returns, and three quick wins that any listener can complete this week. A second episode, covering deeper research and connecting your family story to the wider sweep of British history, is coming soon.

Links

Sponsor

Also Mentioned

Takeaways

Family history research is genuinely addictive — not because of the pedigree chart but because of the moment when a name becomes a person: someone with a job, a neighborhood, neighbors, a dog, and a life that intersects with historical events you already care about.
There is no such thing as a boring ancestor. Agricultural laborers, mill workers, sailors, and servants all lived lives of remarkable complexity — moving seasonally, navigating economic upheaval, living through wars and weather — and the records to explore those lives exist and are increasingly accessible online.
The golden rule of genealogy is to start with yourself and work backward one generation at a time. “Slow is fast” — taking time to verify each connection saves hours of untangling mistakes later.
Talk to your oldest or most vulnerable living relatives now, before the memories are lost. Don’t ask them to recite facts — ask them to tell stories. Put a photograph in front of them. Ask about their first car, their father’s job, the family rumors. That’s where the genealogical gold is hidden.
Check your own home before you open a single database. Shoeboxes of photographs, greeting cards, family bibles, baptism certificates, postcards, and funeral cards all contain clues. Even a photo of someone standing on a porch with a dog can crack a family mystery open.
Civil registration in England and Wales (from 1837) is one of the most powerful genealogical tools in the world — a universal national system that records every birth, marriage, and death, and is far more consistent than the fragmented state-by-state US system. Each certificate chains to the next, revealing a new generation with every document.
The 1911 and 1921 censuses of England and Wales are particularly rich — the first preserved in original household handwriting, the second containing post-WWI data on orphans, divorce, and political protests from veterans demanding the “homes fit for heroes” that were promised and never delivered. The 1931 census was pulped for the war and the 1941 census was never taken, making 1921 the last available for a generation.
The British Newspaper Archive (accessible via Findmypast) is a partnership with the British Library covering millions of newspaper images from the early 1700s to modern day — not just the major national titles but tiny regional papers, sports papers, political papers, and even a newspaper devoted entirely to cats. It is where ancestors come alive as personalities, not just data points.
The Findmypast crime and criminal records collection is the largest of its kind available online, and tracking a transported convict from a British court through the Australian records is very achievable — especially given the extraordinary work done by genealogy communities in Australia and New Zealand to preserve those stories.
Three quick wins for after this episode: call the oldest family member you can and record their stories; search for one relative in a census on Findmypast; and start a basic family tree with your parents and grandparents. All three are achievable this week.

Soundbites

“When we do family history, we think we’re researching individual people. But what we’re really researching is history. We’re researching the people who lived that history in the moment. That’s what makes it addictive — that high of discovering the name of the person you’ve been looking for for five years, and then going, okay, where did he get his shoes?” — Jen on why family history is about so much more than a pedigree chart.
“There is no such thing as a boring ancestor. Get that out of your head right now. Some of the most interesting people I’ve encountered are the ones people say are not very interesting. Agricultural laborers are a great example. There are thousands of them. And they lived a really incredible life.” — Jen on the myth of the uninteresting ancestor.
“People remember things with all five senses. Put a photograph down in front of them and say, what do you remember about this day? Or ask about their first car, their father’s job, the family rumors. If you can get them into telling stories, that’s where those little nuggets of data come from.” — Jen on interviewing living relatives.
“In 1911, there were hundreds of women across the country who were not listed in the census because they would write instead: no vote, no census. If I’m not allowed to vote, then you don’t get to count me as a citizen on your government form.” — Jen on the suffragists’ census boycott.
“You have seven different households at the same address. They had a routine of who got to use the bed and when. While one person was at work, the other family was in the kitchen, family three was in the bedroom sleeping, family four was doing whatever. They worked off a rotation.” — Jen on what the 1921 census revealed about Birmingham’s back-to-back houses.
“Slow is fast in genealogy. If you take your time and really make sure you have these relationships correct, future you will thank you significantly. Nobody begins with 500 ancestors. Everybody starts with one person — and that’s you.” — Jen’s single most important piece of advice for beginners.
“Common sense is queen in genealogy. If you have a Jonathan Thomas born in Yorkshire and a Jonathan Thomas born in Devon, but the whole family is in Yorkshire the whole time, why would someone suddenly be born in Devon? Let that common sense guide you.” — Jen on avoiding the most common beginner mistake.
“Just to compare with the United States — every state records these things differently, possibly every county within every state. But in England and Wales, it’s universal. Everybody goes through the same national system. It doesn’t matter where in the country they are born or died. They are findable.” — Jen on why civil registration is such a powerful tool for British research.
“There’s a seven-year-old who stole a pound and was transported to Australia. A single pound. That’s probably one of the saddest ones I’ve ever found.” — Jen on the human cost visible in the criminal records.
“No one knows your family better than you do. You won’t find it without sitting down and doing it. It’s exciting and it’s history and it’s fun and it’s addictive and it can be very challenging — it’s like playing detective all the time. But it is a lifelong hobby that I guarantee will give you a lot of satisfaction.” — Jen’s closing encouragement to anyone who’s nervous about starting.

Chapters

00:22 Introduction & Sponsor Message — Findmypast and what it offers for British and Irish research
02:14 Introducing Jen Baldwin — Research Specialist at Findmypast, professional genealogist since 2010
03:01 The Big Why — Why family history is so powerful and so addictive once you start
04:44 Social History and the Big Picture — How one person’s story opens up industrialization, migration, war, and more
06:11 There Are No Boring Ancestors — Why agricultural laborers and mill workers have extraordinary stories
07:21 Start with Yourself — The puzzle analogy and why the golden rule exists
09:26 Interview Your Living Relatives — Before the memories are gone, how to ask and what to ask
11:05 The Gold Mine at Home — Shoeboxes of photos, certificates, greeting cards, family bibles, and the dog in the photograph
13:02 Civil Registration from 1837 — England and Wales’s universal national record system and why it beats the US
15:16 The Census from 1841 — A snapshot of every household, and why the 1911 and 1921 are particularly special
17:36 Suffragists and the Census — “No vote, no census” and the political drama inside the 1911 record
19:09 The 1921 Census and Why It’s the Last for a Long Time — The 1931 pulped, the 1941 never taken
20:09 The Political Drama of Census-Taking — Irish chicken-killing, miners’ strikes, and Commonwealth representatives caught in London
22:26 What You Can Actually Learn from These Records — Occupations, addresses, relationships, and a person coming to life
24:15 The Birmingham Back to Backs — Seven households, one address, a sleeping rotation, and what the 1921 census revealed
26:38 Keeping It Simple at the Start — KISS, one generation at a time, and why slow is fast
29:05 Common Mistakes Beginners Make — Guessing, skipping generations, grabbing the wrong record
31:34 Jonathan’s Durham Ancestry — Tracking ancestors who came via Canada rather than direct to the US
32:20 Commonwealth Records — Parish records across the Empire, Canada’s Catholic tradition, and Australia’s convict records
33:39 Criminal Records on Findmypast — The largest UK crime collection online and how to use it
35:12 Convict Transportation — Why it’s more interesting than it sounds, and The Fatal Shore recommendation
36:28 The British Newspaper Archive — Millions of images from the 1700s to today, including a newspaper about cats
38:38 What Newspapers Reveal — Weddings, football scores, war stories, local gossip, and a fire in Enumclaw, Washington reported only in a Scottish paper
40:50 Three Quick Wins — Call a relative, find a census entry, start a basic family tree
42:19 How to Find a Census Entry on Findmypast — A step-by-step walkthrough
44:28 Why Starting a Family Tree Matters — Organization, hints, and the foundation for everything that follows
45:55 One Final Piece of Encouragement — Sit down and do it
46:45 What’s Coming in Episode Two — The 1939 Register, deeper newspaper research, crime records, and connecting your story to British history
47:20 Sponsor Outro — Findmypast free trial links and a call to start this week

Video Version

From D-Day to the Cold War: The Extraordinary Bond Between Winston Churchill and Eisenhower

on July 10, 2026 July 8, 2026

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Anglotopia Podcast | Discussing UK British Travel, History, Culture, London, British Slang, and More!

From D-Day to the Cold War: The Extraordinary Bond Between Winston Churchill and Eisenhower

00:00 / 58:56

In this episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, Jonathan Thomas sits down with Jonathan W. Jordan — New York Times bestselling military historian, Wall Street Journal book critic, and now federal judge — to discuss his richly researched new book Ike and Winston: World War, Cold War, and an Extraordinary Friendship. Spanning a quarter century from their first meeting on Christmas Eve 1941 — when Eisenhower was a little-known brigadier, and Churchill was the most famous man in the world — to Churchill’s death in January 1965, Jordan traces one of the most consequential personal relationships of the 20th century. Their friendship forged through the pressure cooker of war helped launch D-Day, navigate the terrifying logic of nuclear weapons, and manage the fraught transition from British imperial power to American superpower. Jordan and Jonathan cover the early dynamic between the aristocrat and the Kansan, the strategic clashes over Anvil and Berlin, Churchill’s habit of misrepresenting what Eisenhower had told him when he really wanted his way, the moral weight of decisions that killed tens of thousands, their shared love of painting, the goat on parade in Bermuda, and what these two remarkable men can still teach us about friendship, leadership, and bridging difference.

Takeaways

Churchill and Eisenhower first met on Christmas Eve 1941, three weeks after Pearl Harbor — but Churchill promptly forgot the encounter. In his memoirs, he incorrectly stated he first met Ike in June 1942. Churchill had also famously forgotten meeting a young assistant secretary of the Navy named Franklin Roosevelt years earlier.
Jonathan Jordan argues that Churchill’s friendship with Eisenhower was ultimately more pivotal to world history than his famous friendship with FDR. Without Churchill’s patronage, there is no Supreme Commander of D-Day, no NATO commander, and quite possibly no President Eisenhower.
Eisenhower had never heard a shot fired in anger when he was appointed Supreme Allied Commander of the Mediterranean theater in 1943 — and every officer in the room, including Foreign Minister Anthony Eden, had more combat experience than he did. But Patton’s observation captures what made Ike perfect for the job: no officer above the rank of colonel should know too much about tactics, or they’ll interfere with the people who do.
Churchill and Eisenhower lunched together at least weekly during the run-up to D-Day, and met several other times during the week — sometimes for overnight visits at Chequers. Many of their interactions were not grand strategy but practical problem-solving: American drivers going too fast on English roads, landlords overcharging American officers for flats.
The biggest strategic clashes were over Anvil (the Allied landing in southern France, which Churchill wanted canceled to preserve British strength in Italy) and Berlin (which Churchill wanted to capture to deny it to the Soviets, and which Eisenhower refused to spend lives on because he knew the political leaders would give it back after the war anyway). In both cases, Churchill was overruled.
During the Anvil dispute, Churchill went so far as to misrepresent to Roosevelt and to Montgomery what Eisenhower had told him — attributing to Ike support for a plan Ike had never endorsed — in order to start a ball rolling toward canceling the invasion. The British Chiefs of Staff had to go back to their American counterparts and acknowledge that the Prime Minister had misrepresented the situation.
The two men were fundamentally different in their inner lives: Eisenhower was the pragmatist — the card-playing bridge player who assessed odds and would spend lives when the mathematics demanded it — while Churchill was the romantic, the novelist and painter who felt the human cost viscerally and argued passionately against bombing French railways that might kill 40,000 civilians.
Both men were painters — a shared passion that became a genuine bond. After the Suez Crisis ruptured Anglo-American relations in 1956, Eisenhower leveraged America’s love of Churchill by personally promoting the world tour of Churchill’s paintings across US galleries and writing the foreword for the program. The painting Ike was proudest of was his own portrait of Churchill, copied from another work.
The rupture of their later years was over Churchill’s desperate desire for a summit with the Soviet Union after the hydrogen bomb — and Eisenhower’s refusal to engage. Churchill, who had coined the phrase “meeting at the summit,” believed great men could move history in direct conversation; Eisenhower, the organization man, believed the Soviet machine would behave the same regardless of who sat across the table.
Despite every disagreement, the bond never broke at a personal level. When Churchill’s greatest political enemy Clement Attlee served as one of his pallbearers in 1965, it was with Churchill’s prior approval — a final demonstration of the principle both men lived by: never let differences over politics or policy destroy a personal friendship.

Soundbites

“Without Winston Churchill’s backing, there is no Eisenhower. There’s Eisenhower the brigadier who works in the Pentagon and is respected as a planner. But there’s no Supreme Commander of D-Day, there’s no NATO commander, there’s no President Eisenhower. He is not a household name without Winston Churchill.” — Jonathan Jordan on Churchill’s role in making Eisenhower.
“Being a litigator is not all that different from being a historian. You sift through old documents, you interview witnesses — which is basically a deposition — and you package it in a way that’s hopefully accessible and if possible engaging and entertaining for a lay audience, whether that’s twelve jurors or thousands of history buffs.” — Jonathan Jordan on why law and history are the same skill.
“Churchill liked to expound on strategy, but most of what they worked on together were practical problems — shipping backlogs in the English ports, Americans’ drivers having a habit of driving too fast on those small English roads, British landlords overcharging American officers for flats. Sometimes Ike and Winston had to interact like they were city councilmen.” — Jonathan Jordan on the day-to-day reality of their wartime relationship.
“Churchill would do whatever it took. He would use humor, he would argue, he would threaten to resign, he would cry. He would misrepresent what Eisenhower had told him. When he really dug his heels in, anything was on the table.” — Jonathan Jordan on Churchill’s tactics when he wanted his own way on strategy.
“Churchill had to think about whether bombing French railways — which he was told might kill as many as forty thousand French civilians — was too brutal a cost just to slow down Hitler’s reinforcements coming to the Normandy beaches. Churchill was a creative writer, a painter, a bricklayer. He loved animals, he had a very soft spot for children. He didn’t look at things in the purely military lens that Ike did.” — Jonathan Jordan on the chapter titled “Are We Beasts.”
“In explanation of the goat’s refusal to accept the cigarette you offered him this morning, I think I ought to point out that he was aware that smoking on parade is strictly forbidden. Eisenhower wrote back: The goat’s soldierly deportment puts me to shame. You would suppose that after some forty years in the army I would not have embarrassed him so sadly.” — Jonathan Jordan reading the Bermuda goat exchange between Churchill and Eisenhower.
“We are now as far from the age of the atomic bomb as the atomic bomb was from the bow and arrow. Churchill had a vivid imagination — as a painter, a historian, a novelist. He could see big trends into the future. And demons seemed to whisper to him that mankind could incinerate itself with these new thermonuclear weapons.” — Jonathan Jordan on how the hydrogen bomb transformed Churchill.
“Eisenhower was 50% kindly grandfather and 50% cold-blooded calculator. His own son John thought about it and said: we’ll make that 75% cold-blooded calculator. He would never let his personal indebtedness affect how he conducted foreign policy. If he had to step on a friend, whether that was Patton or the remnants of the British Empire in the Suez Crisis, he did it.” — Jonathan Jordan on Eisenhower’s inner character.
“Churchill subscribed to the great man theory of history — great men make history, and he had done it himself in talks with Stalin in Moscow, Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam. Eisenhower was an organization man. He felt the machine did what the machine did. It’s like a car engine — you replace the carburetor, it’ll still run as a car. It won’t turn into an airplane.” — Jonathan Jordan on the fundamental philosophical difference between the two men.
“Don’t let differences over politics or policy get in the way of what could be a good personal friendship. Neither of those two men held grudges if they could avoid it. When Churchill died, Clement Attlee — who had inflicted the very worst political humiliation of Churchill’s life — was one of his pallbearers, and Churchill had approved that.” — Jonathan Jordan on the lasting lesson of the Ike and Winston friendship.

Chapters

00:21 Introduction — Jonathan Thomas introduces the book and Jonathan W. Jordan
01:53 Two Jonathans, Two Americans, One Half-American Subject — The pleasures of the setup
02:46 How a Federal Judge Became a Military Historian — Litigation, jury trials, and the same skills
03:39 Growing Up on Air Force Bases — Aberdeen Proving Grounds, tanks, and the collision of politics and military history
04:29 Why This Book Now — The natural progression from Brothers, Rivals, Victors and American Warlords
05:44 The Sources — 23 volumes of Churchill Papers, 21 volumes of Eisenhower Papers, memoirs, transcripts, and the lawyer’s eye for credibility
07:23 Meet the Protagonists — Aristocrat from Blenheim Palace vs. modest middle American from Kansas
10:10 Churchill and FDR vs. Churchill and Ike — Why the Ike friendship was ultimately more pivotal
11:27 The Age Gap and the Fame Gap — How Ike worked with the famous and powerful without being overawed
13:07 The World They Were Walking Into — Hitler from Moscow to the Pyrenees, Japan swallowing Southeast Asia, and no blueprint for any of it
14:21 Eisenhower’s Military Background — Never heard a shot fired in anger, missed WWI, the Philippines, and Patton’s observation about generals and tactics
17:48 First Impressions and Early Friction — American distrust of Churchill’s Mediterranean strategy and a warming that took time
19:37 The Command Relationship — Weekly lunches, overnight visits at Chequers, and city-councilman problem-solving
21:57 Managing Churchill — The Kay Summersby method: never call an idea stupid, commission a thorough study, show your working
23:43 The Biggest Strategic Clashes — Anvil, Berlin, and Churchill’s misrepresentation of Eisenhower’s position
28:38 Are We Beasts? — The moral weight of forty thousand dead Frenchmen and what it did to each of them
30:34 The Pressure Digression — Jonathan recommends the D-Day weather film; Jonathan Jordan hasn’t seen it yet
32:18 What the War Built — The unbreakable bond of June 1945, forged in shared sacrifice
33:42 After the War — Churchill voted out before final victory, Ike’s ascent from Chief of Staff to NATO to the presidency
35:43 The Role Reversal — The most powerful man in the world faces the leader of a Britain still on rationing
38:41 Waterloo Sunset — Both men presiding over the handover from British imperial power to American superpower
40:53 The Nuclear Age — The Soviet atomic bomb, the American hydrogen bomb, and a Churchill transformed into the great peace advocate
44:16 The Nearest Point of Rupture — The Soviet summit dispute, the great man theory vs. the organization man, and Churchill’s declining opinion of Ike
46:59 Small Human Moments — John Eisenhower welcomed in London, a villa at Lake Como, the Bermuda goat, and the repartee that never died
50:20 Two Painters — How Churchill introduced Eisenhower to painting, the traveling exhibition after Suez, and the portrait Ike was proudest of
52:24 The Wallace Collection Churchill Exhibition — Jonathan’s August visit and Jonathan Jordan’s hope to get there
54:14 What the Friendship Teaches Us — Policy differences vs. personal friendship, Attlee as pallbearer, and the dying art of bridging difference
55:41 Who Were They Really? — 75% cold-blooded calculator vs. the romantic who felt history in his bones
57:50 Wrap-Up — Ike and Winston details, Jordan’s other books, and an invitation to share which wartime friendship listeners want explored next

Video Version

Stonehenge, Druids & Folk Horror: The Myths Behind Britain’s Standing Stones With Paul Robichaud

on July 3, 2026 July 1, 2026

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Anglotopia Podcast | Discussing UK British Travel, History, Culture, London, British Slang, and More!

Stonehenge, Druids & Folk Horror: The Myths Behind Britain's Standing Stones With Paul Robichaud

00:00 / 52:07

In this episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, Jonathan Thomas sits down with Professor Paul Robichaud — Professor of English at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut — to discuss his remarkable new book, Stories of the Stones: Imagining Prehistory in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany, published by Reaktion Books on July 6th. Paul is not an archaeologist but a literary scholar, and his book takes a completely different approach to prehistoric monuments: rather than asking who built them or how, he asks what stories people have told about them across the centuries — and what those stories reveal about us. From the earliest Greek account of a possible spherical temple on a northern island (possibly Callanish), through Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th-century account of Merlin flying Stonehenge from Ireland, through the antiquarian fantasies of Inigo Jones (who decided Stonehenge was Roman and helpfully corrected its geometry to fit) and William Stukeley (who invented the Druid connection that has never entirely gone away), through the Romantics — Wordsworth’s visions of human sacrifice, Blake’s prophetic paintings, Turner’s atmospheric canvases — to the 1970s counterculture, folk horror films, and our own climate-anxious present, the book traces how five millennia of imagining these ancient places tells us as much about the people doing the imagining as it does about the stones themselves. Jonathan and Paul also share their personal favorite prehistoric sites, including Avebury, Wayland Smithy, and — Jonathan’s top pick — Castlerigg in Cumbria.

Takeaways

The word “prehistoric” didn’t exist until the mid-19th century. For most of human history, people encountering these monuments had no framework for understanding them as ancient — they were simply there, part of the landscape, and the stories told about them reflected whatever worldview the storyteller brought: giants, biblical patriarchs, Roman engineers, druid priests, or earth energies.
Stonehenge is unique among stone circles not because of its age or size but because of its distinctive architecture — upright stones with lintels resting on mortise-and-tenon joints, clearly intentional and clearly extraordinary. Its location on a relatively populated southern English plain also meant it was seen by far more people across the centuries than monuments in Wales or the Outer Hebrides.
The Stonehenge we see today is not how it looked for most of recorded history. Many of the stones that appear upright were raised during restoration work in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the contemporary visitor’s experience of a cleaned-up, presented monument is itself a kind of modern imagination of what people thought it should look like.
Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12th-century account — in which Merlin magically flies the stones from Ireland to Salisbury Plain as a memorial to fallen British nobles — dominated the medieval imagination for centuries because there simply were no rival stories. With no archaeological framework and no competing account, his version was accepted as genuine British history.
Inigo Jones concluded that Stonehenge must be a Roman temple, and helpfully corrected its irregular geometry in his drawings to make it look properly classical. William Stukeley correctly identified the Druids as the likely builders — and then spent decades constructing increasingly elaborate Druidical fantasies connecting ancient Britain to biblical monotheism. Both men are cautionary examples of how we make evidence fit our assumptions.
The Druid/Stonehenge association is almost entirely modern — an 18th-century invention that has almost no basis in archaeological evidence. The Iron Age Celts we associate with Druids arrived in Britain centuries after Stonehenge was built. But the association was cemented through repeated reproduction in engravings and illustrations — like a cultural meme — and has proved impossible to dislodge.
The Romantics found in prehistoric monuments the perfect embodiment of the Sublime — Edmund Burke’s idea of awe and terror in the presence of something vast and unknowable. Wordsworth had what he described as visions of ancient Britons and human sacrifice after being stranded near Stonehenge in a carriage accident; Blake incorporated megaliths into his prophetic paintings; Turner painted Stonehenge in dramatic atmospheric light. These Romantic responses shaped how visitors expected to feel at these sites for generations afterward.
Paul’s most unexpectedly moving site visit was to Wayland’s Smithy in Oxfordshire — a Neolithic chambered tomb accessible via the ancient Ridgeway path. He had it entirely to himself in the rain, found a fresh offering of flowers left by a previous visitor, and experienced the kind of quiet communion with place that Stonehenge, with its crowds and visitor management, rarely allows.
Jonathan’s personal favorite prehistoric site is Castlerigg in Cumbria — a stone circle set on a hill and surrounded by mountains, relatively unknown and often visitable in near-solitude. Paul’s is Avebury, which he recommends over Stonehenge for anyone wanting to actually walk among the stones rather than view them from a distance.
Our contemporary fascination with prehistoric monuments is increasingly shaped by environmental anxiety — a need to reconnect with the landscape and with deep human time at a moment of climate crisis and technological acceleration. The stories we now tell about standing stones are as revealing of our own moment as Geoffrey of Monmouth’s were of the 12th century.

Soundbites

“I had one book that had a picture of a druid kind of surfing on a large stone coming into Stonehenge — like he’s landing. The idea was that they must have levitated the stones using Earth energies. The 70s was a time when there was a lot of interest in what we call New Age thinking. All that was kind of in the air when I was a kid.” — Paul on his childhood introduction to prehistoric Britain.
“I’m more interested in what these stories are doing and what they reveal about the people who are telling them. We can get some insight into what these places have meant to people who have visited them and lived alongside them for centuries and even millennia. The stories are interesting in their own right.” — Paul on what a literary scholar sees that an archaeologist might not.
“Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed to get his information from a mysterious book in Welsh that no one else had ever heard of and has never been identified or located. He was clearly a fabulator. But his account dominated the Middle Ages and kept getting retold all through the Renaissance because there were no rival stories.” — Paul on Geoffrey of Monmouth’s enduring influence.
“Inigo Jones with his very careful architectural drawings, correcting the shape of Stonehenge to make it fit his vision, is a kind of exaggerated form of what we’re all tempted to do — which is make things fit our assumptions about the world.” — Paul on antiquarian projection.
“The controversy around Druids in the 1700s was not whether they conducted their rites at Stonehenge — that was assumed — but whether the Druids were noble philosophers who had a secret wisdom, or bloodthirsty priests using human sacrifice to terrify the population into submission. Stukeley and his friend Borlase fell out over this.” — Paul on the 18th-century Druid debate.
“You’ve got a stone circle, you’ve got a druid there, and they’re just always together. It becomes like a meme. And then they’re taken up by the Romantics. So it really gets cemented in the popular imagination.” — Paul on how the Druid/Stonehenge association became inescapable.
“The Romantics find this admiration for the rugged beauty of these sites. Edmund Burke’s idea of the sublime — that we experience awe in wild places that provoke a frisson of fear — becomes a kind of defining experience that travelers have at Stonehenge. These sites are viewed through the same lens as Niagara Falls.” — Paul on the Romantic discovery of the prehistoric sublime.
“I walked from the visitor center and I was glad I did. You see the barrows and the wooded land and then finally, a little bit in the distance, Stonehenge itself. And it really is impressive. You get at least a little bit of that experience of what it must have been like to suddenly see it in front of you in the landscape.” — Paul’s practical advice for visiting Stonehenge.
“I drove up to Wayland’s Smithy and I had the place to myself. It was raining, just one of those English drizzles. You walk down this pathway and then all of a sudden this really magnificent tomb is in front of you with standing stones around it. Someone had left an offering of flowers there. It was really beautiful.” — Paul on his most unexpectedly moving prehistoric site visit.
“As we’re living in this increasingly dire moment of climate change, there’s a sense of urgency in thinking about our relationship to the landscape. And we live in a time of unprecedented technological change — we spend so much of our time staring at screens. I think this interest in the deep past is something more and more people are developing as a way of connecting to our cultural and human origins.” — Paul on why prehistoric monuments still matter today.

Chapters

00:26 Introduction — Jonathan introduces Paul Robichaud and Stories of the Stones
02:15 Origin Story — Leonard Nimoy’s In Search Of, Usborne books, and a trip to Callanish in 1998
03:42 A Literary Scholar Looks at Standing Stones — What Paul’s approach reveals that archaeology alone can’t
05:28 Why Britain, Ireland and Brittany? — The megalithic density of northwestern Europe and the span from 4500 BC to 3000 BC
07:42 A Catalog of Monument Types — Burial mounds, menhirs, stone circles, dolmens, earthworks, and what distinguishes them
08:57 The Word “Prehistoric” Didn’t Exist Until the 19th Century — How the lack of a framework shaped every story told before it
11:13 Why Stonehenge Above All Others — The lintels, the mortise-and-tenon joints, the location, and the architecture of uniqueness
13:49 Stonehenge Is Not What It Looked Like — Restoration, re-erected stones, and why we see a cleaned-up version
16:33 Avebury vs. Stonehenge — Why Avebury often offers a more powerful experience, and the tip to walk rather than take the bus
18:06 Diodorus Siculus and the Spherical Temple — The earliest possible written reference to a British megalithic monument
20:51 Geoffrey of Monmouth and Merlin — The 12th-century account that dominated the medieval imagination for centuries
23:54 The Welsh Tradition — Arthurian connections, early saints, St. Samson, and the distinct Welsh relationship with prehistoric places
26:04 Old English Anxiety — Giants, barrow demons, Beowulf’s dragon, and the fear that ran through early medieval English culture
28:26 The Antiquarians — Inigo Jones decides Stonehenge is Roman and corrects its geometry to fit
31:05 William Stukeley — The genuine archaeological pioneer who invented the Druid connection that has never gone away
36:05 Why Modern Druids at Stonehenge Are Performing a Modern Tradition — And why that doesn’t make it meaningless
38:15 The Romantic Imagination — Burke’s Sublime, Wordsworth’s visions, Blake’s prophecies, Turner’s light
41:01 Wordsworth’s Carriage Accident and the Wicker Man — How personal experience and literary reading combine at these sites
43:38 The Modern Era — Counterculture, New Age, Doctor Who, folk horror, and our climate-anxious present
46:33 Practical Tips for Visiting — Stonehenge, Avebury, Stanton Drew and its pub, Callanish, and what to prioritize
48:33 Personal Favorites — Wayland’s Smithy (Paul) and Castlerigg in Cumbria (Jonathan)
51:00 Wrap-Up — Stories of the Stones out July 6 from Reaktion Books

Video Version

BONUS EPISODE: What’s On in London in July 2026: America 250, Exhibitions, Events & Heat Wave Survival Tips, What To See and Do

on June 30, 2026 June 30, 2026

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Anglotopia Podcast | Discussing UK British Travel, History, Culture, London, British Slang, and More!

BONUS EPISODE: What's On in London in July 2026: America 250, Exhibitions, Events & Heat Wave Survival Tips, What To See and Do

00:00 / 45:12

In this monthly bonus episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, Jonathan Thomas returns with the July edition of What’s On in London — a complete rundown of everything worth seeing and doing in the city this month. July is London at its most extroverted: Wimbledon fever, the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, British Summertime at Hyde Park, open-air cinema across the city, and a remarkable cluster of new exhibitions opening across the major galleries. Particularly special this month are three America 250 exhibitions viewing the American Revolution from the British side — at the National Archives, the British Museum, and Benjamin Franklin’s only surviving house anywhere in the world, just around the corner from Trafalgar Square. Jonathan also covers the ongoing blockbusters already running from June, gives an honest assessment of London’s July heat wave (currently under a red weather warning), shares a firsthand account from an Anglotopia friend who was in the city during the worst of it, and walks through the practical survival tips that will make your summer visit not just manageable but genuinely wonderful.

Takeaways

July is London at its most spectacular and its most demanding — maximum daylight (sunrise before 5am, sunset after 9pm), world-class events, longer museum hours, and beautiful golden evening light, but also peak crowds, peak prices, and the very real possibility of an extreme heat wave.
Three once-in-a-lifetime America 250 exhibitions are open this July, all viewing the American Revolution from the British side: the National Archives has George Washington’s handwritten letter accepting the British surrender at Yorktown and an original copy of the 1783 Treaty of Paris; the British Museum has four key objects from the Revolution; and Benjamin Franklin’s only surviving house anywhere in the world is hosting “How We Lost America” from July 3.
Richard Dadd at the Royal Academy (from July 1) is the most compelling new exhibition of the month — a rare survey of the brilliant Victorian painter who created hauntingly intricate fairy scenes while confined to an asylum after killing his father in a psychotic episode.
The red weather warning heat wave currently affecting Britain is not a reason to cancel a trip, but it does require preparation: buy a fan on arrival (from Boots, Superdrug, Marks & Spencer, or a corner shop), carry a refillable water bottle, avoid the Central, Bakerloo, Northern, and Piccadilly tube lines during the heat, and use the air-conditioned Elizabeth line instead.
During an extreme heat wave, even well-equipped venues can be forced to close galleries — one Anglotopia friend visiting recently reported that parts of the British Museum had to shut because industrial fans couldn’t bring temperatures down, and visitors were fainting. Have a backup plan for every attraction.
The Art as Witness exhibition at Westminster Hall (from July 13) — gathering official artworks made to record Queen Elizabeth II’s lying in state in September 2022 — is a quietly moving, freely accessible display in one of the oldest buildings in London, and is worth combining with a Houses of Parliament tour during the summer recess.
The BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, running from mid-July straight through August, offers some of the most affordable classical music in London — from Bach to brand new compositions — with tickets potentially still available for some concerts.
The Queen’s Fashion exhibition at The King’s Gallery is now extended into 2027 — if you’re visiting next spring, book now, as it continues to sell out in advance.
Jonathan’s honest verdict: July is the right month if you love outdoor events, maximum daylight, world-class exhibitions, and big set-piece British occasions like Wimbledon, and you’re comfortable with higher prices and significant crowds. It’s the wrong month if you want contemplative museums, budget hotels, relaxed restaurant booking, or the tube to feel bearable without the Elizabeth line.
Tucked between every crowded attraction, there is still a quieter London in July — in tree-lined squares, along the Thames at dusk, in church gardens, in early-morning side streets before the tour groups arrive. Walk slowly, sit in the parks, get to the pub before the evening rush, and the city reveals itself.

Soundbites

“July is London at its most extroverted, most expensive, and most crowded — and honestly its most beautiful. The city is showing off, and you can either love that or find it exhausting. There really is no middle ground.” — Jonathan’s honest verdict on July in London.
“Richard Dadd created these hauntingly intricate fairy scenes like the Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke — while he was confined to an asylum after he killed his father in a psychotic episode. So that’s like, this guy already sounds really interesting.” — Jonathan on the Royal Academy’s most compelling new show.
“The National Archives has a handwritten letter signed by George Washington accepting the British surrender at Yorktown. They have an actual copy of the 1783 Treaty of Paris. You’re going to be seeing some of the most famous documents that are really founding documents for us — from the British side.” — Jonathan on the National Archives America 250 exhibition.
“Benjamin Franklin spent something like 20 to 30 years living in London. And his only remaining house that he ever lived in is in London, just around the corner from Trafalgar Square. They’re hosting a witty and thought-provoking exhibition called ‘How We Lost America’ — a British perspective on the Revolution, told in the very house where Franklin spent years trying to hold both sides together.” — Jonathan on the Benjamin Franklin House.
“The temperature climbed to about 98 degrees on their last day and it genuinely curtailed their plans. Walking the sun-drenched pavements and riding the crowded tube became, in their words, a bit debilitating — especially as they were senior travelers. In an extreme heat event, the heat doesn’t just make you uncomfortable. It can quietly eat your itinerary.” — Jonathan sharing a firsthand heat wave account from an Anglotopia friend.
“The first thing you should do when you land and you’ve checked into your hotel is go to a local ironmonger or hardware store and get a fan. Buy a fan. You will need a fan. Buy two fans. You’ll have two fans. Be in a wind tunnel.” — Jonathan’s number one heat wave survival tip.
“The light is a secret superpower of July travel in London. That long golden evening light makes every gray building glow. Yes, it’s hot. Yes, it’s crowded — but the city looks absolutely beautiful at 8pm with a cold glass of something in your hand.” — Jonathan on why July evenings in London are worth it.
“Even though the British Museum has air conditioning, some of the galleries had to shut because they couldn’t bring the temperature down even with industrial fans — and they mentioned visitors fainting from the heat. If you’re building a trip around a specific thing you want to see during a heat wave, have a backup.” — Jonathan on extreme heat and museum closures.
“Sun rises before 5am, sets after 9pm. It’s glorious if you love long evenings — maddening if you want to sleep in. But you’re in London. Why waste time sleeping?” — Jonathan on July’s extraordinary daylight hours.
“Walk slowly, sit in the parks, go to the pub early before the evening rush. The city is jammed with people but it’s also jammed with possibility. July is London saying: I’m giving you my absolute best. Here it is, take it or leave it. And most people will take it — which is exactly why it’s so crowded.” — Jonathan’s closing thought on July in London.

Chapters

00:21 Introduction — The July edition of What’s On in London and what to expect
01:30 New Exhibition: Richard Dadd at the Royal Academy (July 1)
02:30 New Exhibition: Anna Mendieta at Tate Modern
03:00 New Exhibition: In Other Worlds by Liam Young at the Barbican (July 15)
03:30 New Exhibition: Audrey Amis at the Wellcome Collection (July 9)
04:10 Royal Update: The Queen’s Fashion Exhibition Extended into 2027
04:45 Special Event: Art as Witness — Queen Elizabeth II Lying in State, Westminster Hall (July 13)
05:30 Houses of Parliament Tours — Summer Recess Access
06:10 New Exhibition: Waldmüller Landscapes at the National Gallery (July 2 — Free)
06:45 New Exhibition: Young Artist Summer Show, Royal Academy (July 14 — Free)
07:15 America 250 — Seeing the Revolution from the British Side
07:45 America 250: Revolution 250 at the National Archives (Free)
09:00 America 250: Declaring Independence at the British Museum (Free)
10:00 America 250: How We Lost America at Benjamin Franklin House (July 3)
11:30 Ongoing from June: Frida Kahlo & Tracey Emin at Tate Modern
12:00 Ongoing from June: Anish Kapoor at the Hayward Gallery
12:20 Ongoing from June: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
12:40 Ongoing from June: Schiaparelli at the V&A
13:00 Ongoing from June: Zurbarán at the National Gallery
13:20 Ongoing from June: Whistler at Tate Britain, Marilyn Monroe at NPG, Wallace & Gromit at Young V&A
14:00 Big Seasonal Events: Wimbledon
14:30 Big Seasonal Events: World Cup Viewing in London Pubs
15:00 Big Seasonal Events: BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall (mid-July)
15:45 Big Seasonal Events: Buckingham Palace State Rooms Summer Opening (late July)
16:30 Big Seasonal Events: Open Air Cinema — Somerset House, Rooftop Film Club, Regent’s Park
17:00 Big Seasonal Events: British Summertime at Hyde Park
17:30 What’s Open and Closed in July — Museums, Restaurants, the Tube
18:30 July Weather — What to Expect, the Current Red Warning Heat Wave
20:00 Firsthand Heat Wave Account — An Anglotopia Friend’s Two Weeks in London
22:00 How to Stay Cool in London — Fans, Water Bottles, Which Tube Lines to Avoid
25:00 The Elizabeth Line as Your Best Friend in a Heat Wave
26:00 What to Pack — Clothing, Hat, Sunglasses, Sun Cream, Rechargeable Fan
27:30 Is July a Good Time to Visit? — Jonathan’s Honest Assessment
29:00 Who Should Visit in July vs. Who Should Wait
30:00 Finding the Quiet London Inside the Crowded One
31:00 Wrap-Up — Londontopia Events Calendar, Friends of Anglotopia, and See You Next Month

Video Version

Return to Gold Hill – The Hovis Hill Cottage You Can Rent — Melanie Fontana on Restoring Button Cottage

on June 26, 2026 June 24, 2026

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Anglotopia Podcast | Discussing UK British Travel, History, Culture, London, British Slang, and More!

Return to Gold Hill - The Hovis Hill Cottage You Can Rent — Melanie Fontana on Restoring Button Cottage

00:00 / 58:44

In this deeply personal episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, Jonathan Thomas makes a big announcement — he and Mrs. Anglotopia are returning to Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset, the place that inspired Anglotopia itself. As a teenager in Indiana, Jonathan hung a poster of Gold Hill on his bedroom wall and dreamed of going there; it became the reason he fell in love with Britain. After nearly 10 years away, he and Jackie are returning to stay in Button Cottage — a 400-year-old property sitting right on the famous cobbles, painstakingly restored by its owner Melanie Fontana over three years. Jonathan sits down with Melanie to hear the full story: how she and her partner fell in love with Gold Hill on an Easter weekend, found the cottage for sale on their phones, and spent three years stripping away decades of 1970s “improvements” — concrete floors, bitumen tar, plasterboard, blocked fireplaces — to reveal 450-year-old beams, Victorian elm floorboards, a fossil in the grouting, and one of the most atmospheric interiors in Dorset. The episode also covers the history of Shaftesbury, the legacy of the Ridley Scott Hovis advertisement, what it means to restore a Grade II listed building, and why Gold Hill remains one of the most unchanged streets in England.

Takeaways

Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset — the steep cobbled lane made famous by Ridley Scott’s 1970s Hovis bread advertisement — is the place that inspired Jonathan to visit Britain as a teenager and directly led to the founding of Anglotopia. Jonathan and Jackie are returning to stay on the hill for the first time in nearly 10 years.
Button Cottage is a genuine 400-year-old property sitting directly on the cobbles of Gold Hill, restored from near-dereliction to authentic period condition by Melanie Fontana and her partner over three years — and it is available to rent on Airbnb.
The cottage was comprehensively ruined in the 1970s: beams were covered with plasterboard, the fireplace was blocked and converted to gas, floors were concreted over, and the entire structure was tanked with bitumen tar — stopping the building from “breathing” and trapping damp inside the walls for decades.
Stripping back the 1970s layers revealed 450-year-old oak beams still filled with ancient woodworm holes, Victorian elm floorboards underneath later chipboard, layers of wallpaper from the 1950s through the 1980s peeled from the fireplace wall, and a fossil discovered by hand with a pickaxe when the concrete floor was removed — now set into the grouting between the limestone floor tiles.
Restoring a Grade II listed building requires using period-appropriate materials throughout: lime plaster (not modern gypsum), limewash or breathable paint, reclaimed stone, and kiln-dried wood for the fireplace. Melanie worked with a conservation architect and joined the Listed Property Owners Club to educate herself before starting work.
Shaftesbury is one of England’s five highest towns, built on a Saxon hilltop fortification, and its history stretches back over 1,300 years. The Abbey ruins directly outside Button Cottage — founded by Alfred the Great in 888 AD — are a Grade I scheduled monument and entry is free.
The Hovis advertisement, directed by Ridley Scott before he became famous, still draws visitors from around the world to Gold Hill — some of whom walk up the hill humming the theme tune. Melanie says the town “wears it like a comfortable cardigan” — not overplaying it, not overdeveloping it, just letting the hill exist as it always has.
Button Cottage sleeps two (one king bedroom plus a single daybed room), features a working inglenook fireplace split into two halves by 1970s alterations, Victorian elm floorboards, 450-year-old beams, a ground-floor shower room, a kitchen with reclaimed pine floors, and a walled garden with views over the Blackmoor Vale.
Melanie offers a genuinely personal hosting experience: she meets guests on arrival, shows them how everything works, customizes the welcome pack based on dietary preferences, and provides seasonal gifts — currently Prosecco and Dorset Apple Cake in summer, red wine and local cheese in winter.
Gold Hill itself has barely changed in centuries — historical paintings and photographs from every era show the same street, the same rooflines, the same Abbey wall. It is, as Jonathan puts it, a place that simply doesn’t change — and that is precisely why it means so much.

Soundbites

“As a teenager in Indiana, I bought a poster at Hobby Lobby called Gold Hill Dorset. And hung it on my wall next to my bed and looked at it every single morning and thought — one day I’m gonna go there.” — Jonathan on the image that started it all.
“My partner got on his phone and Googled to see if there was anything for sale. And this little cottage, the cutest of all the cottages, was for sale. We went home, got on the phone, booked a viewing, and we just wanted to snap it up right away.” — Melanie on falling in love with Gold Hill on an Easter weekend.
“It was very much spoiled in the 1970s. The beams were covered, all the woodwork was covered with modern plasterboard. The walls were plastered with modern plaster. It was actually really, really damp — because it had been tanked with bitumen tar.” — Melanie on what they found when they bought the cottage.
“To find those beams and to touch them and to know they’re approximately 450 years old is just goosebump. They are filled with ancient woodworm holes from centuries ago and they’re just beautiful.” — Melanie on the moment the ceiling came down.
“When he dug up the concrete floor by hand with a pickaxe, he found a fossil. And he’s settled the fossil into the grouting next to the limestone floor tiles just in between the living room and kitchen. So it’s there for people to see.” — Melanie on one of the cottage’s most extraordinary discoveries.
“The old-fashioned building techniques are fantastic because what they do is they allow a cottage like this to absorb moisture and then release moisture according to the weather patterns. It just breathes just like we do.” — Melanie on why modern materials damage historic buildings.
“The town wears it like a comfortable cardigan. It hasn’t been overdone, it hasn’t been presented in a certain way. Nobody’s out there polishing cobbles. The cobbles just exist. The cottages just exist.” — Melanie on Shaftesbury’s relationship with the Hovis advertisement.
“People tell me it’s really relaxing and it feels like it gives you a hug. When they tell me they didn’t wake up till 11am the next morning and they actually missed meeting up with their friends because they just slept and slept and slept.” — Melanie on guests’ reactions to the cottage.
“It is my first time, although I do have a history a long long time ago — my first career was in hospitality. So I’ve done restaurant catering, functions, dinner dances. And this is just a little bit like that but without having to do any cooking.” — Melanie on her background and why Button Cottage felt like a natural fit.
“I’m almost as emotional as they are, honestly. So many people feel the history and they see it as a quintessentially English place to be, to drink in. I just feel really proud of what we’ve done here.” — Melanie on welcoming guests who have a deep connection to Gold Hill.

Chapters

00:21 Introduction & Big Announcement — Jonathan reveals he and Mrs. Anglotopia are returning to Gold Hill
01:10 The Poster on the Bedroom Wall — How Gold Hill in Shaftesbury inspired a teenager in Indiana and started Anglotopia
02:24 Welcome to Melanie Fontana — Owner and restorer of Button Cottage
02:47 Love at First Sight — How Melanie and her partner discovered Gold Hill on an Easter weekend and bought the cottage on the spot
04:02 Buying in 2019 — Purchasing just before the pandemic and the frustration of not being able to start work
04:59 The Restoration Philosophy — Reverting to original as far as possible, using period materials, and letting the building breathe
07:32 What They Found Inside — A cottage comprehensively ruined by the 1970s: plasterboard, blocked fireplaces, concrete floors, and bitumen tar
08:45 The Discoveries — 450-year-old beams, Victorian elm floorboards, layers of wallpaper, a fossil in the floor, and wood from a market chest
13:05 The Name Button Cottage — Cute as a button, and Shaftesbury’s history as a center of the hand-embroidered button-making industry
14:58 Gold Hill and Shaftesbury — One of England’s five highest towns, Saxon origins, greenstone buildings, independent shops, and the worldwide renowned countryside bookshop
19:35 The Silence of Shaftesbury — What Jonathan loves most, and Shaftesbury as a microcosm of English history
20:12 The Abbey Ruin Wall — A Grade I scheduled monument founded by Alfred the Great in 888 AD, right outside the front door
22:24 Shaftesbury Abbey — Free to visit, picnics welcome, one of the biggest and richest abbeys in medieval England before the Reformation
23:48 The Hovis Advertisement — Ridley Scott, how Gold Hill became globally famous, visitors who come humming the theme tune, and the town’s quietly confident relationship with its own fame
26:57 Restoring a Listed Building — Planning restrictions, lime plaster, the Listed Property Owners Club, and materials of the time
29:00 The Biggest Challenge — Bitumen tar in the bathroom and fireplace, and why chemicals are sometimes unavoidable
32:57 The Inglenook Fireplace — How it was cut in half in the 1970s, why they decided to keep it that way, and why it works perfectly
35:20 A Tour of Button Cottage — Living room, inglenook, vestibule, shower room, kitchen, laundry, main bedroom with iron bed, single daybed room, and the walled garden
40:33 The Furnishings — Farrow & Ball pointing, reclaimed furniture, feather sofas, goose down bed, velvet and linen cushions, and why texture matters
42:17 The Six-Foot Question — Beam heights, where to duck, and the leather-padded “mind your head” signs
44:09 Opening to Guests — Melanie’s dream of a customer-facing business, her hospitality background, and why this was the perfect fit
45:39 Why Airbnb — How it works, the booking experience, and Melanie’s responsive approach to hosting
46:29 Tips for Staying in a Historic Property — What to expect, the hill, the cobbles, the handrail, and why it’s never as difficult as it looks
50:47 The Tea Question — Clipper organic, Earl Grey, Lavazza coffee, and a welcome pack tailored to every guest
54:32 The Big Announcement — Jonathan and Jackie are coming to stay in February, and what it means to welcome guests who have a deep connection to Gold Hill
56:56 Wrap-Up — buttoncottage.co.uk, Airbnb bookings, and an invitation to follow along when Jonathan and Jackie visit

Video Version

Anglotopia Podcast: Episode 100 – Britain, America & Chicago: A Conversation with His Majesty’s Consul General Richard Hyde

on June 19, 2026 June 17, 2026

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Anglotopia Podcast: Episode 100 - Britain, America & Chicago: A Conversation with His Majesty’s Consul General Richard Hyde

00:00 / 41:52

In this special on-location episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, recorded at the Chicago History Museum on the occasion of His Majesty the King’s official birthday, Jonathan Thomas sits down with Richard Hyde — His Majesty’s Consul General in Chicago and the senior British diplomatic representative across 14 states in the American Midwest. Speaking just before the British Consulate’s King’s Birthday Garden Party, Richard explains what a Consul General actually does, why Britain doesn’t have a National Day, how he approaches representing modern Britain to the heartland of America, and what King Charles’s address to a joint session of Congress meant for the Special Relationship. The conversation also uncovers a remarkable piece of Anglo-Chicago history: after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Queen Victoria and 8,000 British donors — including Disraeli, Tennyson, and John Stuart Mill — sent books to Chicago, directly founding the Chicago Public Library. Plus: the Beatles, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Welsh roots, Abraham Lincoln’s North Wales ancestry, and why Chicago is Richard’s favorite city in the world.

Note: We had originally planned to do a 100th Q&A for our 100th episode, but a much bigger opportunity arose last week, which we thought was more fitting. We’ll do the Q&A soon!

Takeaways

The United Kingdom is one of the only countries in the world without an official National Day — which is why British consulates abroad use the King’s official birthday in June as their annual celebration, conveniently timed to coincide with Trooping the Colour.
Richard Hyde covers 14 American states as Consul General — roughly 25% of the entire United States — including 105 members of the House of Representatives and 28 senators, making the Midwest a critical region for understanding where American politics is heading.
After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Queen Victoria personally led a donation drive that saw 8,000 British donors — including Benjamin Disraeli, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and John Stuart Mill — send books to Chicago, directly founding the Chicago Public Library. Victoria’s personally signed copy of a biography of Prince Albert is still in the library’s special collection.
King Charles’s address to a joint session of Congress during his America 250 visit was, in Richard’s assessment, a masterclass in diplomatic communication — speaking to shared values rather than political divisions and reminding both nations of the deep historical thread connecting Magna Carta to the US Constitution.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s family were Welsh; Abraham Lincoln’s great-great-grandfather came from a small village in North Wales just 40 miles from Richard’s hometown of Liverpool; and Anish Kapoor — who designed Chicago’s Cloud Gate Bean — is British. Britain’s cultural fingerprints are everywhere in Chicago.
The British Consulate deliberately chose the Chicago History Museum and the Chicago Public Library Foundation as partners for this year’s King’s Birthday event to honor the Victorian book donation story — and encouraged guests to donate to the Foundation in the spirit of Queen Victoria’s original gesture.
Richard argues that British culture in America is simultaneously everywhere and invisible — so deeply embedded in American music, film, language, and history that most Americans don’t register it as foreign. The Beatles are the perfect example: four working-class kids from Liverpool whose music plays in every country in the world, including a Chinese restaurant in Somalia in 1998.
The Special Relationship, Richard says, is ultimately about 80% agreement — both countries share fundamental values on democracy, freedom, and human rights, and the disagreements, while loud, are at the margins. King Charles’s Congress speech focused on that 80%.
Richard’s most unexpected discovery in Chicago: Midwesterners are the most authentically friendly people he’s encountered in 10 overseas postings. They follow up. They text you. They actually become your friends — not just professional contacts.
Richard’s message to young Americans: spend time abroad. Not a two-week vacation, but a semester, a few months, living in someone else’s culture. It will change how you see America — and make you appreciate it far more deeply.

Soundbites

“I like to joke that Chicago is one of America’s two great cities with proper downtowns. Everywhere else is sprawl. But the difference is — in Chicago, the people are nice, the streets are clean, and the food’s better.” — Richard on why Chicago stands apart.
“We’re celebrating America 250. We’re celebrating the fact that this is the greatest startup in history. We argued a little bit and there was some spilled tea — and despite all of that, 250 years on, no two countries do more together in the world.” — Richard on Britain’s approach to America 250.
“Queen Victoria and 8,000 British donors sent books to Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871 — and that donation directly led to the founding of the Chicago Public Library. Victoria’s signed copy is still there. It’s a gesture from 1871 that still resonates now.” — Richard on the Anglo-Chicago library story.
“The King rises above the moment. He was able to come at a challenging time in our relationship and remind Americans — and remind Brits — that there are fundamentally more important things than the moment we’re in. And that is our shared values.” — Richard on King Charles’s Congress speech.
“I’ve been all around the world. I’ve never really been a great theater-goer. But Ed Hall at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre has kind of infected me. I’ve become addicted to theater.” — Richard on an unexpected Chicago conversion.
“The flag in the United States is the symbol of their liberty. Our flag was created from existing countries we already had. So Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland — the Union flag is basically a combination of four different crosses. We didn’t have to fight for it.” — Richard on why Brits and Americans relate to their flags so differently.
“I’ve lived here almost two years. Of all the places I’ve lived, this is the easiest place in the world to actually build a network of friends. You can stand in a bar and someone starts talking to you about the Cubs and fundamentally how terrible everyone is at the moment — and they actually follow up.” — Richard on Midwestern friendliness.
“The longer I stay away and the more I’ve represented my country overseas, the prouder I am of that country. Warts and all. I’m proud of the history — even the complicated history. You have to understand it, not erase it.” — Richard on representing Britain from a distance.
“I have to say — I saw Hamilton recently and the best character in Hamilton is the King. Everyone agrees. He has the best songs.” — Richard on George III stealing the show.
“If you ever get a chance to travel — and I say this to a lot of young Americans — don’t mean a two-week vacation. Go spend a semester abroad. Go spend a few months in somebody else’s culture. And you’ll understand A, that the country you love isn’t perfect. But the longer you think about it, the more you’ll appreciate what your country does.” — Richard’s message to young Americans.

Chapters

00:21 Introduction — Jonathan sets the scene at the Chicago History Museum on King’s Birthday
01:36 Welcome from Richard Hyde — The occasion, Chicago, and what the day means
01:58 Richard’s Background — Liverpool, an Indian father, and a career that took him to India, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Texas, and Chicago
02:47 What Surprised Richard Most About Chicago — Midwest vs. Texas, great food, accessibility, and why Chicago rivals New York
04:44 British Things in Chicago — Hawksmoor, Celtic Crossings, Irish pubs, and a Sunday roast worth traveling for
07:08 What Does a Consul General Actually Do? — The difference from an ambassador, 14 states, 25% of the US, and what the job really looks like day to day
10:25 Representing Modern Britain — Multicultural, proud, complicated history, and the gap between Downton Abbey and reality
11:30 The Scope of the Midwest Region — 105 House members, 28 senators, and listening to farmers in South Dakota
15:22 What Is the King’s Official Birthday? — Why Britain has no National Day and how the official birthday fills that gap
17:42 The Anglo-Chicago Library Story — The Great Fire of 1871, Queen Victoria, 8,000 British donors, Disraeli, Tennyson, and the founding of the Chicago Public Library
19:49 Chicago’s Literary Heritage — Hemingway, Carnegie libraries, and the bookishness of the Midwest
20:15 America 250 — Celebrating the greatest startup in history, spilled tea, and why Britain is all in
22:20 The Founding Fathers as British People — A nuance most Americans don’t consider
22:33 King George III in Hamilton — Richard’s verdict: the best character, the best songs
23:07 King Charles’s Address to Congress — What it meant, how it landed, and the 80% agreement principle
26:02 Getting the King to Chicago — Deep dish dreams and the challenge of a royal itinerary
26:36 The Anglo-Chicago Connection — Frank Lloyd Wright’s Welsh roots, Lincoln’s North Wales ancestry, Anish Kapoor’s Bean, and why British culture in America is invisible because it’s everywhere
29:14 The Transatlantic Flow Goes Both Ways — Charles Yerkes and the London Underground, Gordon Selfridge, and Chicago’s British legacy
29:46 Does Representing Britain Change How You See It? — Absence, appreciation, complicated history, and Churchill in Fulton, Missouri
33:08 What Richard Champions in the Midwest — The Beatles, Liverpool, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and British music’s global reach
35:25 Chicago’s Theater Scene — Shakespeare, Kinky Boots, Harry Potter, and how theater became Richard’s unexpected passion
36:10 The Tea Question — Richard’s honest answer, builder’s tea, Yorkshire Tea, and the biscuit problem
37:06 Hadrian’s Wall and Health Plans — Jonathan’s August walk, no sugar in the tea, and necessity
37:37 Richard’s Favorite Thing About Chicago — The people, authentic friendliness, and why this is his best posting in 10 assignments
39:39 The World Cup Question — England’s chances, Richard’s divided loyalties, Wales, Argentina, and playing in the heat
40:46 Wrap-Up — Thank you to the Chicago History Museum, how to follow the British Consulate General Chicago

Video Version

Anglotopia Podcast: Episode 99 – Churchill’s Secret Life as a Painter — Dr. Lucy Davis on a Once-in-a-Lifetime Exhibition at Wallace Collection

on June 12, 2026 June 10, 2026

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Anglotopia Podcast: Episode 99 - Churchill's Secret Life as a Painter — Dr. Lucy Davis on a Once-in-a-Lifetime Exhibition at Wallace Collection

00:00 / 54:09

Did you know that in addition to saving the free world, Churchill was also an accomplished painter? In this episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, Jonathan Thomas sits down with Dr. Lucy Davis — curator of paintings at the Wallace Collection in London and co-curator of Winston Churchill the Painter, the first major retrospective of Churchill’s art in over 60 years and the first substantial UK exhibition devoted to his paintings since his death in 1965. The exhibition brings together nearly 60 works, roughly half from private collections rarely accessible to the public, and traces the full arc of Churchill’s artistic life: from the tentative canvases he made during the darkest moment of his World War I career, through the luminous Mediterranean harbors and Moroccan cityscapes of his mature period, to the bold late works of a man who found in painting one of the greatest solaces of his life. Lucy walks Jonathan through the story of how Churchill came to paint, the three major artists who shaped his style — John Lavery, Walter Sickert, and William Nicholson — the single painting he made during World War II, the extraordinary Hallmark Cards world tour, and why the Wallace Collection is the perfect home for this once-in-a-lifetime show. The exhibition runs until November 29, 2026. Book your tickets now.

Lucy is very grateful to her colleagues at Hallmark Cards, Inc. for their research into the World Tour of Churchill’s paintings, which she has referenced in this podcast.

Takeaways

Winston Churchill the Painter at the Wallace Collection is the first major retrospective of Churchill’s art in over 60 years — nearly 60 works, roughly half from private collections that are rarely if ever accessible to the public. This is a genuinely once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Churchill took up painting in 1915 at the lowest point of his life, following the catastrophic failure of the Dardanelles campaign. His wife Clementine later said she thought he would die of grief — and it was painting that gave him back his spark.
Churchill was never formally trained, but worked closely with at least three leading professional artists: John Lavery (portraiture and plein air painting), Walter Sickert (modernist techniques and working from photographs), and William Nicholson (still life, tonal restraint, and simplified composition).
Churchill’s single painting during World War II was a view of Marrakesh, painted the day after he took President Roosevelt to see the sunset over the Atlas Mountains following the Casablanca Conference. He gave it to Roosevelt as a gift — it is in the exhibition, facing the painting he later gave to President Eisenhower.
The Wallace Collection’s connection to Churchill runs deeper than the exhibition: Odette Pol Roger was born Odette Wallace as great-granddaughter of Sir Richard Wallace, became Churchill’s close friend, and reserved an entire vintage of Pol Roger champagne for him. A quarter-bottle believed to be one of the last he drank before his death in 1965 is on display in the exhibition.
Churchill’s paintings were the subject of a record-breaking world tour of North America, Australia, and New Zealand in 1958, masterminded by President Eisenhower and Joyce C. Hall, founder of Hallmark Cards. Churchill initially refused — until Eisenhower wrote him a personal letter about the wave of goodwill it would create.
Churchill submitted paintings to competitions under the pseudonym “David Winter” and was given the title of Honorary Academician Extraordinary by the Royal Academy — only the second person ever to receive this honor, after Edward VII.
The goldfish pool at Chartwell — Lucy’s personal favorite painting in the exhibition — contains a detail invisible in photography: the ripple created by the fish on the surface, painted in a subtle mauve-grey. Lucy says it perfectly summarizes Churchill’s playful, witty personality.
Picasso, upon seeing Churchill’s painting La Dragonnière, said (paraphrasing) that Churchill would have been a good professional painter if he hadn’t had something else to do. The painting is in the exhibition.
The new edition of Churchill’s own book Painting as a Pastime — with an introduction by Paul Rafferty — has just been published and is the perfect companion to the exhibition. It explains in Churchill’s own words why he took up painting and why everyone else should too.

Soundbites

“Clementine was looking on and she was so relieved to see him engaged in something. He talked about all this unwanted leisure — going from a really high-pressured executive job to suddenly watching the whole tragedy unfold. To see that spark lit up again.” — Lucy on Clementine’s reaction when Churchill first picked up a paintbrush.
“He said painting was a complete distraction. He said: I know nothing which without exhausting the body more entirely absorbs the mind.” — Lucy quoting Churchill on why painting worked when nothing else could.
“He’s painting the headquarters of the battalion as it was progressively being shelled and devastated. One of his young soldiers said he was unusually quiet and withdrawn and asked what was wrong — and he said: I’ve been really struggling to paint the craters.” — Lucy on Churchill painting in the trenches at Plug Street.
“He said it should be a joy ride in a paint box. Nobody should feel afraid or daunted by it. We don’t have to aspire to masterpieces.” — Lucy on Churchill’s message to anyone who wants to paint.
“A traveling exhibition of your paintings in the United States would not only attract a great deal of attention, but I am certain it would serve in a very definite way to strengthen the friendship between our two countries.” — Lucy quoting Eisenhower’s letter persuading Churchill to allow the world tour.
“He submitted a painting in 1925 to an amateur painting competition and won first prize — although one of the judges wanted to disqualify it because he thought it must be by a professional painter.” — Lucy on Churchill exhibiting anonymously under the pseudonym David Winter.
“Picasso said — and I’m paraphrasing — that he would have been a good professional painter if he didn’t have something else to do.” — Lucy on Picasso’s verdict on Churchill’s painting La Dragonnière.
“There’s a particular detail that doesn’t come out in photography — the ripple created by the fish on the surface that he’s painted in this sort of mauve-grey color. It’s just such a lovely finishing touch and really summarizes that playful, witty side of his personality.” — Lucy on her favorite painting in the exhibition, the goldfish pool at Chartwell.
“He made the gardener row back and forth across the moat to create ripples so he could try a different effect in the water.” — Lucy on Churchill’s obsessive dedication to capturing reflections accurately.
“I think he would like to see us leaving the exhibition with smiles on our faces and with an urge to pick up a paintbrush.” — Lucy on what Churchill himself would have wanted visitors to take away.

Chapters

00:22 Introduction — Jonathan sets up the exhibition and introduces Dr. Lucy Davis
01:59 Lucy’s Background — 15 years at the Wallace Collection, the Courtauld, the National Gallery, and Washington DC
03:09 What Is the Wallace Collection? — A world-class art collection in an intimate Marylebone townhouse
04:47 The Wallace Collection’s Churchill Connection — The Artists Aid Russia exhibition, Clementine’s charity, and the Pol Roger link
06:29 Churchill’s Favorite Champagne — And the quarter-bottle of Pol Roger in the exhibition
07:14 How Churchill Came to Paint — Gallipoli, the darkest moment, Ho Farm in Sussex, and Hazel Lavery’s advice
09:49 Did He Take to It Naturally? — Total ambition, total audacity, and the self-portrait painted at 40
13:00 Painting in the Trenches at Plug Street — Easels in the First World War and the crater problem solved
14:50 What Painting Gave Churchill That Nothing Else Could — Complete absorption, relief from anxiety, and seeing the world properly for the first time
17:12 Churchill’s Message to Everyone — A joy ride in a paint box, and why no one should feel daunted
19:13 500 Canvases Alongside Everything Else — Chancellor, Prime Minister, Nobel laureate: where did he find the time?
21:12 The One WWII Painting — The Casablanca Conference, Roosevelt, the Atlas Mountains, and a gift that symbolized the Special Relationship
23:02 The Marrakesh Painting and the Gift to Eisenhower — Two paintings face to face in the exhibition
23:47 The Hallmark Cards World Tour — Joyce C. Hall, Eisenhower’s persuasive letter, and a record-breaking global exhibition
25:49 How Did Brad Pitt End Up Owning the Marrakesh Painting? — Neither host quite knows
26:34 Churchill’s Artistic Mentors — John Lavery, Walter Sickert, William Nicholson, and what each one taught him
32:20 Churchill’s Influences — Monet, Cézanne, the Impressionists, and the tessellated pavement of dabs and lozenges
32:33 Walking Through the Exhibition — Six galleries from First Attempts to the Royal Academy
34:00 Gallery 1: First Attempts — Lavery, the self-portrait, and the Plug Street paintings
35:00 Gallery 2: Life and Hope — Chartwell in all seasons, Blenheim, and the wilderness years paintings
36:00 Gallery 3: Still Lifes — Nicholson’s influence, the Magnolia painting, and thank-you gifts to friends
37:00 Gallery 4: Light, Atmosphere & Reflections — The Riviera, Morocco, La Dragonnière, and making the gardener row
38:19 Morocco — Six visits, the Red City, the Atlas Mountains, and the Eureka Valley picnics
39:30 Gallery 5 & 6: Recognition — The Royal Academy submission under a pseudonym, Honorary Academician Extraordinary
40:06 Chartwell as Inspiration — 50 years, built for the view, goldfish pools, and the changing seasons
41:45 How a Major Exhibition Comes Together — Loan negotiations, private collections, and 20 years in the making
43:34 The Exhibition Catalog — Six essays, new archival research, and what makes it more than a picture book
47:11 The Contributors — Andrew Roberts on soft power, Catherine Carter on Chartwell, Paul Rafferty on the Riviera, Alan Packwood on Churchill as a visual person
48:36 The Churchill Family’s Involvement — Support from the very beginning and throughout
49:16 Why Americans Should Get on a Plane — A revelation, a personality revealed, and a zest for life
50:22 Rapid Fire Churchill Round — Favorite book, film, quote, and painting
53:44 Wrap-Up — Exhibition details, tickets, catalog, and Jonathan’s August visit

Video Version

Anglotopia Podcast: Episode 98 – Best British History Books with Brendan Dowd from the History Nerds United Podcast

on June 5, 2026 June 3, 2026

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Anglotopia Podcast | Discussing UK British Travel, History, Culture, London, British Slang, and More!

Anglotopia Podcast: Episode 98 - Best British History Books with Brendan Dowd from the History Nerds United Podcast

00:00 / 1:17:58

In this episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, Jonathan Thomas is joined by Brendan Dowd — West Point graduate, Iraq War veteran, government consultant, and host of History Nerds United, one of the most respected history book podcasts in the business with over 220 episodes — for a pure, unfiltered book nerd conversation. Both hosts came with a stack of their favorite British history books and took turns sharing their picks, debating the merits, going gloriously off-topic about Darkest Hour, the new Wuthering Heights film, Bridgerton, and Dan Jones’s upcoming castles book, and building what amounts to a British history reading list that will keep you busy for years. Between them, Jonathan and Brendan recommend over 20 books spanning Alfred the Great, the Tudors, the Regency, Victorian London, World War II, Thatcher, the Iranian Embassy Siege, and the hidden history of English wolves — plus a peek at what’s sitting on each of their TBR piles right now.

Takeaways

Both Jonathan and Brendan started their podcasts for exactly the same reason — frustration at the quality of existing coverage in their field — and both were shocked to discover how generous, enthusiastic, and collegial the history author community turned out to be.
Brendan’s gateway into British history was Alfred the Great by Justin Pollard — a compact, accessible biography of the only English monarch to earn the title “the Great,” which he recommends as the perfect gateway drug for readers who think history books are intimidating.
Jonathan’s most-reread British book is Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island — a definitive outsider’s portrait of British culture from the early 1990s that remains beloved by British readers themselves, and the book that most shaped his vision for Anglotopia.
Andrew Roberts’s one-volume Churchill biography is both Jonathan and Brendan’s recommended starting point for anyone wanting a modern, comprehensive, and myth-busting account of Churchill — and Roberts’s Napoleon biography is equally essential.
Helen Castor is independently named by Brendan as one of his very favorite history writers — her Eagle and the Hart on Richard II and Henry IV, and her Joan of Arc episode of his podcast, are both highlighted as exceptional examples of humanizing complex historical figures without sanitizing them.
Both hosts agree that the best history books share a quality: they humanize their subjects — showing the positive and the negative — rather than either condemning or canonizing them. The books they admire most leave the reader to make their own moral judgments.
Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera and The Crown’s Silence by Brooke Newman both generated significant controversy — particularly in British publications — but both Jonathan and Brendan recommend them as essential, rigorously evidenced correctives to popular myths about the British Empire and the monarchy’s role in the slave trade.
Ben Macintyre’s The Siege — on the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London that made the SAS famous — is Brendan’s pick for best recent true British history read, praised for building unbearable tension over hundreds of pages before releasing it all in a single extended final chapter.
The new Wuthering Heights film gets a thumbs-down from both hosts — “it looks beautiful but just didn’t land” — while Darkest Hour generates a spirited debate about the Underground scene that ends with both agreeing it’s historically wrong but emotionally right.
Both hosts are currently working through books about the interwar period, Cold War espionage, and upcoming releases from Dan Jones and Thomas Asbridge — and both agree that the single greatest problem with loving history books is that the TBR pile never gets shorter.

⠀

Soundbites

“I lost it. I said, there’s gotta be a better way. I don’t want to continually torture my family with all my rants about books. So I started the blog.” — Brendan on the one-star Amazon review that launched History Nerds United.
“I sent 10 emails on the first day thinking if I get one back I’ll be ecstatic. I got eight back within three days. And I’ve now sat on a boat with Dan Jones having drinks, overlooking Omaha Beach. Nobody tell me it didn’t happen.” — Brendan on the unexpected magic of the history community.
“I have yet to interview a jerk. Everyone has been unfailingly nice and so excited to be there and just so game to talk about whatever.” — Brendan on 220+ episodes of History Nerds United.
“My long-term goal is to be like Bill Bryson. I’ve actually met him. He’s a very nice chap. I can only hope to be 10% as good as him one day.” — Jonathan on Notes from a Small Island and his writing ambitions.
*”If you want to understand why everything is happening in Downton Abbey, read *The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy. I read it as research for a novel I was writing in college and it has never left me.” — Jonathan on David Cannadine’s masterwork.
“Churchill wouldn’t have done that. He was not that type of person. But you put Churchill in a period tube carriage, surrounded by Londoners during the Blitz, and it captures the essence of what the story is trying to tell. Was it real? Heck no.” — Jonathan and Brendan on the Underground scene in Darkest Hour.
“Helen Castor is constantly teaching you, but you feel like you’re just having a conversation within the book. At the end of it, you hear Helen get emotional talking about this teenager burned at the stake — how scared she must have been, even with all her faith. She makes her human instead of an icon.” — Brendan on his favorite episode of History Nerds United.
“The thesis is that because Britain hunted wolves to extinction, it unleashed the economic powerhouse of sheep farming and wool — and as a consequence of that led to so much of what we know as Britain. I read it and I wanted to read it all over again immediately.” — Jonathan on The Last Wolf by Robert Winder.
“She stayed laser focused on the Elizabethan succession and somehow it’s still interesting all the way through. She mentions the Spanish Armada for about three sentences. I said in my review: this book has been written. We don’t need any more on this subject.” — Brendan on Tracy Borman’s The Stolen Crown.
“No author has ever made me feel more lazy than Catherine Grace Katz — she wrote *Daughters of Yalta* while she was in law school. If you told me that I would one day be sitting there with Marsha Clark from the OJ Simpson trial, I would have called you a liar. But that’s what this world does.” — Brendan on the surreal privilege of the history podcast community.

⠀

Chapters

00:00 Introduction — Jonathan sets up the book conversation episode and introduces Brendan Dowd
01:41 How a Tank Platoon Leader Got a 220-Episode History Podcast — Long commutes, bad Amazon reviews, and one unexpected email
05:58 The History Author Community — Why everybody wants you to win, and the generosity of historians
08:10 Dan Jones on a River Cruise — Brendan’s honeymoon, Omaha Beach, and a surreal life moment
09:01 What History Nerds United Is — The format, the philosophy, and why Brendan calls himself the laziest podcaster
10:26 BOOK PICKS BEGIN
10:39 Brendan Pick #1: Alfred the Great by Justin Pollard — The George Washington of England and the perfect gateway drug
12:18 Jonathan Pick #1: Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson — The definitive outsider’s portrait of British culture and Jonathan’s most-reread book
14:28 Brendan Pick #2: The Six Loves of James I by Gareth Russell — A party animal king, Scottish trauma, and the most uncomfortable compliment Gareth ever received
16:58 Jonathan Pick #2: Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts — The one-volume biography that settles the argument
18:15 Andrew Roberts’s Napoleon — A brief but enthusiastic detour to France
18:56 Brendan Pick #3: Battle for the Island Kingdom by Don Hollway — 1000 to 1066, the most disgusting assassination in history, and setting up everything
20:05 Jonathan Pick #3: My Early Life by Winston Churchill — The only autobiography, the Boer War escape, and the Gary Stiles connection
21:50 Darkest Hour Debate — The Underground scene: historically wrong, emotionally right, and why it works anyway
23:18 The Perfect WWII Double Bill — Darkest Hour followed by Dunkirk as a single evening
23:50 Brendan Pick #4: Henry V by Dan Jones — Present tense biography, the greatest medieval king, and writing something when you feel ready for it
25:29 Jonathan Pick #4: A Very English Scandal by John Preston — Jeremy Thorpe, a murder plot, a dead dog, and the British establishment
26:57 John Preston’s Robert Maxwell Book — And a certain imprisoned daughter
27:26 Brendan Pick #5: Thomas More: A Life by Joanne Paul — Saints, hair shirts, comedy gold, and debunking 500-year-old myths
29:24 Jonathan Pick #5: London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd — The definitive history of London and the gateway to a great corpus
30:25 Brendan Pick #6: Once a King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII by Jane Marguerite Tippett — He wasn’t a Nazi, and the documentation proves it
32:03 Jonathan Pick #6: Citizens of London by Lynne Olson — Americans in London during the Blitz and how they helped save Britain
33:24 Brendan Pick #7: The Stolen Crown by Tracy Borman — The Elizabethan succession, new evidence, and calling Henry VIII a few four-letter words
34:56 Tracy Borman on Inside the Tower of London — And Dan Jones’s upcoming Castles book
36:03 Jonathan Pick #7: Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera — Deconstructing myths of the British Empire and why the author quit social media
37:32 Brendan Pick #8: The Crown’s Silence by Brooke Newman — The monarchy’s direct financial involvement in the slave trade and British publications’ predictable response
39:34 Jonathan Pick #8: The Iron Lady by John Campbell — The definitive Thatcher biography and why she’s Churchill’s true successor
41:45 Brendan Pick #9: The Greatest Knight by Thomas Asbridge — William Marshal, four kings, King John, and a life that reads like a Hollywood script
43:22 Jonathan Pick #9: The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy by David Cannadine — The book that explains Downton Abbey and everything behind it
44:29 Brendan Pick #10: The Eagle and the Hart by Helen Castor — Richard II, Henry IV, and why taking the crown makes you a marked man
46:48 Jonathan Pick #10: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh — Fiction that illuminates aristocratic decline and the companion read to Cannadine
48:18 Brendan Pick #11: The Invention of Charlotte Brontë by Graham Watson — Jane Eyre as a gateway, the weird genius of the Brontë family, and more autobiography than you realized
50:18 Wuthering Heights Film Discussion — Brendan defers, Jonathan gives a verdict: beautiful but it didn’t land
51:43 Jonathan Pick #11: The Last Wolf by Robert Winder — No wolves, lots of sheep, and the surprising hidden springs of Englishness
53:10 Brendan Pick #12: London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe — A body off a balcony opposite MI5, true crime that leaves you profoundly uneasy
54:54 Jonathan buys London Falling at Barnes & Noble — And finds it in the fiction section
55:24 Jonathan Pick #12: The Regency Years by Robert Morrison — What Bridgerton gets wrong, what Jane Austen’s world actually was, and the Anglotopia Bridgerton guide
56:23 Bridgerton vs. The Patriot — Two hosts agree: know your genre, leave accuracy at the door
58:15 Brendan Pick #13: The Siege by Ben Macintyre — The Iranian Embassy siege, the SAS, and a final chapter that takes an hour to read
1:00:06 Jonathan Pick #13: Churchill’s Citadel by Katherine Carter — Chartwell as weapon, the wilderness years, and the best first book Jonathan has read in years
1:01:31 What’s on the TBR Right Now — Ike and Winston, Three Weeks in July, A Shellshocked Nation, the Nord Stream conspiracy, Dan Jones’s Castles, and more
1:07:37 The Book Neither Host Can Find Anyone to Write — Brendan’s gap in the market involving Joan of Arc’s most disturbing companion
1:10:24 The Book Jonathan Should Write — Brendan makes his pitch; Jonathan firmly declines
1:11:06 Jonathan’s Gap in the Market — Churchill’s second term as Prime Minister: underexplored, fascinating, partially covered by The Crown
1:12:29 John Lithgow as Churchill — Too tall, earned it on The Crown, also very scary in Dexter
1:12:36 Brendan’s Proudest Episode — Helen Castor on Joan of Arc, two hours that felt like twenty minutes
1:16:52 Wrap-Up — Where to find History Nerds United, the full book list in the show notes, and promises of a return visit

Video Version

BONUS EPISODE: What’s on in London in June 2026, Royal Events, Exhibitions, Theatre, Heatwave Travel Tips

on June 4, 2026 June 4, 2026

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Anglotopia Podcast | Discussing UK British Travel, History, Culture, London, British Slang, and More!

BONUS EPISODE: What’s on in London in June 2026, Royal Events, Exhibitions, Theatre, Heatwave Travel Tips

00:00 / 35:24

In this special bonus episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, Jonathan Thomas launches an experimental new monthly format: a London events guide covering what’s actually on in the city this month. June is arguably London’s finest month — 16 to 17 hours of daylight, the longest evenings of the year, and an events calendar absolutely bursting at the seams. Jonathan walks through everything worth knowing about June in London: the major royal events including Trooping the Colour and Royal Ascot, the blockbuster summer exhibitions at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the Royal Academy, the National Portrait Gallery, the V&A, and more, plus what’s on in London theater from Shakespeare’s Globe to the West End, live music at Wembley and the Roundhouse, and practical tips for surviving — and thriving in — a London heat wave. If this episode proves popular, Jonathan will make it a monthly fixture. Let him know what you think in the comments.

Takeaways

June is arguably London’s best month to visit — 16 to 17 hours of daylight, reliably pleasant weather, and the richest events calendar of the year, though it is also peak tourist season with hotel prices running 20 to 40 percent above spring rates.
Trooping the Colour — the monarch’s official birthday parade — is the major royal event of the year in 2026. Even without a ballot ticket to Horse Guards Parade, you can experience the procession on the Mall and the balcony appearance at Buckingham Palace by arriving very early and staking out a good spot.
Every major summer blockbuster exhibition in London requires advance booking — some, like The Queen’s Fashion at The King’s Gallery, are already sold out through 2026. Book tickets as soon as you finish listening, even if your trip dates aren’t confirmed yet.
The Frida Kahlo survey at Tate Modern, the James McNeill Whistler retrospective at Tate Britain, and the Marilyn Monroe exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery are Jonathan’s top three must-book exhibition picks for the month.
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition — the world’s largest open submission art show, running since 1769 — is a uniquely chaotic, democratic, and wonderful experience where everything on the walls is for sale and any artist can enter.
Shakespeare’s Globe is staging Much Ado About Nothing from June 11, and Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre opens A Midsummer Night’s Dream on June 20 — watching Shakespeare outdoors on a long June evening is one of the quintessential London summer experiences.
London generally does not have air conditioning in older buildings, hotel rooms, or most tube lines. The first thing you should do after arriving in summer is buy a fan — Jonathan recommends going straight to Argos, Britain’s version of a catalog store, for an affordable one.
The tube’s older lines (Central, Piccadilly) get brutally hot in summer due to London clay absorbing and retaining heat underground. The Elizabeth line is fully air conditioned and runs east-west across the city — use it as much as possible in a heat wave.
The National Gallery is experimenting with extended summer evening hours, staying open until 7 PM most evenings and until 9 PM on Fridays from July 1 — Jonathan’s suggestion: have an early dinner, then walk over for a free evening of world-class art.
Don’t try to pack too much in. Pick three or four things you genuinely care about, build your days around those, and leave time to wander, sit in Green Park with a deck chair, or walk along the Thames in the long evening light. June in London is as much about the atmosphere as the attractions.

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Soundbites

“The light is the headline for June. You get sixteen to seventeen hours of daylight. Twilight stretches from around eight PM to nearly ten PM. You can have a full day of exploring, sit down for dinner, and still walk home along the Thames and have some daylight.” — Jonathan on why June is London’s best month.
“If you’ve ever wondered what the best month to visit London is, a lot of people will quietly tell you it’s this one.” — Jonathan on June in London.
Plan your day around it. Get up stupidly early — three, four, five in the morning — get your spot on the Mall and soak up the atmosphere. It’ll be like a party atmosphere.” — Jonathan on how to experience Trooping the Colour without a ticket.
“The Queen’s Fashion at The King’s Gallery is sold out for the rest of the year, and I know a lot of people are gonna be really disappointed when they try to get tickets and they simply can’t.” — Jonathan’s warning on the most in-demand exhibition of the summer.
“The walls are packed from floor to ceiling and everything is for sale. It’s chaotic and wonderful. And it’s a great way to see up-and-coming artists and established artists side by side.” — Jonathan on the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
“Shakespeare under the open sky in one of London’s loveliest parks on a warm June evening — it doesn’t get dark till ten PM anyway. Enjoy some champagne, enjoy some theater out in the green. That’s my top theater pick for the month.” — Jonathan on Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
“The first thing you should do after you land is go to what the British call an ironmonger — a hardware store — and buy a fan. Don’t skimp. It is essential for Americans traveling in Europe.” — Jonathan’s number one summer travel tip.
“The London clay is a heat sink. It absorbs heat and then it doesn’t let it back out. So the tube gets really hot in the summer. If you are prone to heat issues, avoid the tube except the Elizabeth line, which is fully air conditioned.” — Jonathan on navigating London in a heat wave.
“I sat there in the rain in the 40s, got soaking wet. And I — not exaggerating — almost got hypothermia. It was July. I could not warm up when I got back to the hotel because the heating wasn’t on and there weren’t enough blankets because it was July.” — Jonathan’s cautionary tale about British summer weather.
“Argos is exactly like Service Merchandise — you go in, there’s a big catalog, you pick your thing, and it comes out on a conveyor belt. Get a fan. Don’t even look at the weather forecast first. Just trust me — you’re going to need a fan.” — Jonathan’s most practical London summer tip.

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Chapters

00:21 Introduction — Jonathan launches the experimental monthly London events format
01:15 The Feel of June in London — Long days, the light, and why June is special
02:20 June Weather — What to expect, heat waves, and the maritime humidity problem
03:45 Peak Tourist Season — Crowds, hotel prices, and why June still beats July
05:00 Trooping the Colour — What it is, how to see it without a ticket, and Jonathan’s tips for getting a good spot
08:30 Royal Ascot — Fascinators on the tube, the royal procession, and how to get tickets
10:00 Wimbledon — The ballot, resale tickets, strawberries and cream, and what to do if you can’t get in
11:30 How to Book Exhibitions — Why advance booking is non-negotiable and the Queen’s Fashion sellout warning
13:00 Frida Kahlo at Tate Modern — Jonathan’s pick and why Tate Modern is worth seeing for the building alone
14:30 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (June 16) — The world’s largest open submission art show
15:30 Anish Kapoor at the Hayward Gallery (June 16) — The Cloud Gate connection and why it’s worth seeing
16:15 Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery — Just opened, book fast
17:00 Barbara Hepworth at the Courtauld Gallery — And why Somerset House is worth a visit anyway
17:45 Schiaparelli at the V&A — Fashion exhibitions and why the V&A excels at them
18:15 Wes Anderson at the Design Museum — A treat for film fans
18:45 James McNeill Whistler at Tate Britain — A sellout show, book immediately
19:30 Wallace & Gromit at Young V&A — The Aardman exhibition Jonathan is hoping to catch in August
20:15 Closing This Month — Mikalojus Čiurlionis at the Royal Academy (closes June 21) and Hokusai at Dulwich (closes June 30)
21:00 Theater — Why June is the best time for London theater
21:30 Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre — A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jonathan’s top pick of the month
22:00 Shakespeare’s Globe — Much Ado About Nothing from June 11
22:30 New West End Openings — To Kill a Mockingbird (June 25) and Cyrano de Bergerac (June 13)
23:00 Long-Running Shows — Lion King, Hamilton, Wicked, Six, Les Mis, and how to get discount tickets
24:00 Live Music — Harry Styles at Wembley, Olivia Dean at the O2, Orville Peck at the Roundhouse
25:00 Practical Tips: Heat — Does London have air conditioning? (Mostly no)
26:30 The Fan Imperative — Buy one at Argos, the British Service Merchandise
28:30 Pack for All Weathers — The July outdoor concert near-hypothermia story
30:00 Humidity and Heat — Why British summer heat hits differently than dry American heat
31:00 Use the Long Days — 17 hours of light, late museum hours, rooftop bars, evening walks
32:00 National Gallery Extended Hours — Stay open till 7 PM, Fridays till 9 PM from July 1
33:00 Don’t Overpack Your Itinerary — Pick three or four things, leave time to wander
34:00 Wrap-Up — Londontopia events calendar, listener feedback request, Friends of Anglotopia