[Live] Oskar Jensen: Vagabonds (1815)

Welcome to a very special live recording of Travels Through Time, made at the Chalke Valley History Festival.

Under the sun of a midsummer day in southern England, Violet Moller sat down for a chat, and a song, with a fascinating young historian. Oskar Jensen took Violet back to the year 1815 and introduced her to several characters from his new book, Vagabonds: Life on the Streets of Nineteenth Century London.

Oskar Jensen completed a doctorate at Christ Church, Oxford before being awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. He is currently teaching at the University of East Anglia as a Senior Research Associate and is about to take up a NUAcT Fellowship at Newcastle University

Jensen has appeared on BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are? and regularly contributes to Radio 3 and 4. He is also one of the BBC New Generation Thinkers 2022 and is a co-founder of the Romantic National Song Network.

Vagabonds is his first popular history book.

As ever, for more about this episode, head over to our website: www.tttpodcast.com

Show notes

Scene One: Kennington in South London, as 22-year-old servant Mary Bailey, who has just been fired, hears an execution ballad about Eliza Fenning.

Scene Two: Torbay harbour, as a certain Corsican gentleman sets off total mania and hysteria in Britons across the land, inspiring a number of songs in the process.

Scene Three: Tower Hill, as Joseph Johnson tries to come to terms with alienation, disappointment, and disability - partly through appropriating songs of both hope and protest.

Memento: Napoleon’s tricorn

People/Social

Presenter: Violet Moller

Guest: Oskar Jensen

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours

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With thanks to everyone at the wonderful Chalke Valley History Festival.