The Rest Is History The Rest is History Club

Rumours surrounding Lord Byron’s scandalous divorce rippled throughout the world. Finally, he had no choice but to abandon England in disgrace and flee to Italy, an exile but still the most famous man in Europe. Then, in the summer of 1816 in Geneva, he met a young poet named Percy Bysshe Shelley, and one of the most iconic literary friendships of all time was sparked. A handsome republican with an enthusiasm for free-love, Shelley immediately attracted Byron’s admiration. With him, however, was his sister-in-law Claire, a former lover of Byron’s, pregnant with his child whom he detested. Also, Shelley’s wife, Mary. So it was that on a stormy night of ghost stories, another great masterpiece was born…However, as time passed and in the wake of a series of tragedies, the aging Byron grew increasingly isolated and restive, his thoughts turning once more to Greece, that ancient land of myth and legend. Approached by the London Greek Committee to help support the cause of Greek independence, Byron set off once more for Kefalonia. Was it doom or destiny that beckoned?

Join Tom and Dominic for the grand finale of their gripping journey through the life of one of history’s most darkly intriguing figures, Lord Byron. From his English exile, Italian sojourn and final love affair, to the greatest adventure of them all...




*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*

Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!

Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com


Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook


Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

Was there a World War before the First World War? Why have apocalyptic mythologies always loomed large in human religions? Who was the mystic that predicted a Third World War in 1979? Which nation did she say would win, and why? Under what circumstances would the world be destroyed? Based on history, is there anything happening geopolitically in the world right now that could culminate in the outbreak of a Third World War?

Join Dominic and Tom for this month’s livestream, as they discuss the great World Wars of history, apocalyptic prophecies, nuclear warfare, and the future of the world...





*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*

Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!


Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com


Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook


Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

Good God I am surely in hell!

Upon Lord Byron’s return to England and the publication of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, he became one of the most notorious men in Europe and the world's first celebrity. The next period of his life would be rocked by shocking scandal, moral depravity and sexual outrage. Pale and sickly but devastatingly romantic, he attracted a dedicated fan base, the likes of which had never been seen. Chief amongst these was the eccentric and androgynous Lady Caroline Lamb, whose affair with Byron would inflame London society and push both to the brink of insanity. So extreme was Caroline’s obsession that upon the advice of her mother-in-law, the cunning and cruel Lady Melbourne known as "the Spider", Byron set out to find himself a wife. The woman he chose was an unlikely candidate: a mathematician, Annabella Milbanke, who Byron hoped would redeem his devilish disposition. Their marriage would be blighted by cruelty, immorality and a particularly pernicious breed of infidelity. For, one other woman now played a central role in Byron’s life: Augusta Leigh, his lover, and sister…

Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss Lord Byron’s tumultuous romantic love affairs and marriage; culminating in a scandal so shocking and sexually licentious that it would drive him from England. 



*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!

Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com

Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

By 1809, Lord Byron found himself untethered and debt-ridden. Disenchanted with politics, frustrated by his literary career and haunted by his illicit homosexuality, he abandoned an oppressive England and set out upon his legendary Eastern adventure. First plunging into a Europe torn asunder by the exploits of his hero, Napoleon Bonaparte, Byron decried the imperialist militarism of the raging Napoleonic Wars. Nevertheless, he delighted in the danger and excitement of his travels, absorbing and subsuming the cultures he encountered, and exploring a predilection for transvestism. From Portugal and the Peninsula War, Byron travelled to Albania where he fascinated the infamous Ali Pasha, and then later charmed the Sultan of Constantinople. In Greece, he found a land of exotic romanticism where his growing sense of destiny took root in the Greek’s fight for liberty. At last, in 1811 Byron returned to England and published his poem, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Almost overnight he became the most famous man in London. Byromania had engulfed the nation…

Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss Lord Byron’s remarkable travels abroad - his encounters with some of the most famous men of the age, his confrontations with danger and destiny, and his untethered eroticism…



*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!

Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com

Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What does Dominic make of the recent claims regarding Harold Wilson's secret affair with the civil servant Janet Hewlett-Davies? Has the impact of the Moon landings been lost in recent decades? What is the difference between a cad, a bounder and a rotter? Which is the worst? And, will Zendaya ever make it onto The Rest is History...?

Join Tom and Dominic for their grand reunion in this week’s bonus episode, as they discuss Dominic's new book, Tom's Orkney adventure, and answer some intriguing historical questions.



*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!

Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com

Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

Few lives from history can have contained as many strange and exciting strands as that of Lord Byron's, whose story reflects the great dramas of the Napoleonic era. A vampiric hero of devilish charisma; a martyr for liberty, a licentious lothario; Byron’s cultural and literary impact cannot be underestimated. The remarkable course of his life, and his mercurial nature can in part be explained by the dark events of his childhood, and the outlandish history of his own family. Born with a club foot - his “satanic mark” - to “Mad Jack” Byron, a former gigolo dogged by incest and financial ruin, and an unpredictable mother, a strange curse seemed to lie over the family. Impoverished before the inheritance of his title and a romantic ruin in Nottinghamshire, the plump and provincial boy would finally find solace at school and university, where he transformed into the glamorous rake he would become. There too would he discover the dubious sexual passions that would haunt his life…

Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss the diabolic history of the Byron family, and the young Byron’s birth, troubled upbringing, and controversial adolescence.



*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!

Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com

Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices