Bob Carlisle was a Victorian influencer and minor celebrity; a global seafarer, circus clown and lion tamer, and Britain’s original long-distance ‘wheelbarrow pedestrian’. This new six-part series sees David Musgrove recover the story of this widely forgotten and larger-than-life character. In this first episode, David talks to historians Valerie Sanders and Bob Nicholson to explore Bob’s early life and investigate what his experiences can tell us about life-writing and the media in 19th-century Britain.
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The triumph of Joan of Arc
Rome v Carthage: everything you wanted to know
Tokyo’s devastating 1923 earthquake
US Civil Rights: legacy
On the trail of a Nazi war criminal
How did empire shape modern Britain?
Why did medieval Europe become Christian?
The Mongols: everything you wanted to know
The lost world of Dickens’ London
US Civil Rights: Malcolm X’s assassination
The miners’ strike: a view from the ground
California’s hidden history of slavery
Letters from medieval England
New Zealand: everything you wanted to know
Indian experiences in WW2
US Civil Rights: the 1964 Civil Rights Act
Learning disabilities: an overlooked history
Secrets of ancient Chinese tombs
How forgers helped rescue Holocaust victims
Ancient Egyptian religion: everything you wanted to know
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Dan Snow’s History Hit
The Ancients
Gone Medieval
Not Just the Tudors
History Unplugged Podcast