Lady Carnarvon's Official Podcast

Today, I welcomed author Alex Norman to the podcast to talk about his book on De Havilland’s Moth and the thrilling world of aviation in the 1920s and 30s, a period with such wonderful links to Highclere. 
Alex shared his own family’s connections to early flying, including his grandfather’s aircraft and involvement in the London Aeroplane Club and explained how Geoffrey de Havilland’s ingenuity helped by Frank Halford’s lightweight Cirrus engine made the DH60 Moth a breakthrough for private pilots.
 We explored how government-subsidised flying clubs, adventurous women and men and the freedom of the skies fuelled record-breaking journeys, from Lady Bailey and Amy Johnson to the Aga Khan Trophy winner Aspy Engineer. 
We ended with Alex’s dream dance partner: the remarkable aviator Beryl Markham.
00:56 The de Havilland Family Connection
04:33 Building the First Aeroplane
05:05 Post-War Aviation & The Birth of the Moth
11:35 The Private Flying Movement & Aeroplane Clubs
14:47 Women in Aviation & Record-Breaking Adventures
16:47 The Aga Khan Trophy & Aspi Engineer
21:03 The de Havilland Legacy & The Mosquito
21:59 Dream Party Guest: Beryl Markham
You can hear more episodes of Lady Carnarvon's Official Podcasts at https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/podcast/

New episodes are published on the first day of every month.

I’m delighted to welcome author and explorer Levison Wood to Highclere, where we talk about my great love; trees and his book, The Great Tree Story: how forests have shaped our world.
 Levison shares how studying the Grand Tour at university inspired his lifelong passion for travel and storytelling, from hitchhiking across Europe and Central Asia to serving as an officer in the Parachute Regiment and deploying to Afghanistan. He recalls founding a production company and undertaking extraordinary long-distance walks, including nine months walking the White Nile from its farthest source to the Mediterranean, followed by the length of the Himalayas and other epic routes. 
We explore what drew him to write about trees, especially an experience with the Asháninka in the Amazon and we discuss ancient yews, cedars, redwoods, Highclere’s planting of 22,000 trees and his plans to adapt The Great Tree Story into a feature documentary.
01:05 Grand Tour Roots
03:26 Modern Travel Risks
04:56 Army Years and Afghanistan
05:49 From Soldier to Storyteller
07:31 Walking the Nile
09:06 More Epic Expeditions
10:33 Planning and Logistics
12:31 Highclere Explorer Heritage
14:30 Why Trees Matter
17:32 Ancient Trees and Estate Planting
19:42 Redwoods and Tree Lore
23:29 Trees in Culture and Craft
24:33 Green Man and Next Film
You can hear more episodes of Lady Carnarvon's Official Podcasts at https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/podcast/

New episodes are published on the first day of every month.

I welcome Dutch historian Rutger Bregman to the podcast after first messaging him on Instagram and we talk about what I took from his book Humankind and my own wish to bring people together to remember friendship and kindness. 
Rutger reflects on Dutch directness and equality shaped by living with water, from the 1953 flood to the Delta Works, and shares why he writes for a general audience about big questions of human nature. 
We discuss his challenge to the “veneer theory” and his belief in “survival of the friendlies,” alongside a real shipwreck story near Tonga where six boys survived 15 months through cooperation. Our conversation turns to bullying, family and attachment, the Second World War and Rutger’s research for Moral Ambition on how resistance spreads simply by asking others to help.
01:10 Dutch Culture and Directness
04:01 Water Engineering and Delta Works
05:41 Early Civilizations and Conflict
06:58 Why Bregman Writes Big History
08:12 Debunking Human Nature Myths
10:07 Cooperation at Highclere Today
12:49 Tempest and Amoral People
13:55 Real Lord of the Flies Story
19:00 Bullying Attachment and Family
21:41 Victorian Fathers Revisited
22:40 Reform Politics And Women
23:28 Why Study War
24:04 Resistance Myth Debunked
25:24 Heroes Are Asked
27:29 Unconventional Organizers
30:25 Kindness After Loss
32:19 Kindness Is Contagious
35:03 Lessons From Animals
36:18 Veneer Theory And Dickens
37:59 British Indirectness
You can hear more episodes of Lady Carnarvon's Official Podcasts at https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/podcast/

New episodes are published on the first day of every month.

I’m delighted to welcome historical novelist Caroline Montague to the castle, where we talk about how writing offers a refuge from everyday life and how she protects her creative time in her office with her dogs. Caroline shares the remarkable history of Burnt Norton, its links to T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets,” and the dramatic tale of Sir William Kite, whose scandal, bankruptcy, and death by fire helped give the house its name, alongside stories of the “white lady” said to haunt the top floor. 
We discuss her path from law and interior design to writing, her planning process shaped by a firm agent, shifting titles and covers, and her current rewrite of a book about a famous royal swap. We also chat about spaniels, horses and the comfort animals bring.
00:49 Writing Routine and Space
01:35 Career Path to Author
02:41 Burnt Norton and TS Eliot
04:42 William Kite House Tragedy
07:02 Ghost Stories White Lady
09:51 House History and Hauntings
11:25 Plotting Process and Ideas
13:16 Deadlines Output and Titles
15:18 Rewriting The Hook
16:08 Jigsaw Writing Method
17:17 Past Healing Present
18:17 Woods And Creativity
18:35 Spaniel Life And Social Media
19:59 Dressage Highs And Loss
21:09 New Horse Gio
22:33 Italy And Spanish Stallions
25:08 Books Animals And Imagination
You can hear more episodes of Lady Carnarvon's Official Podcasts at https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/podcast/

New episodes are published on the first day of every month.

I’m delighted to welcome the novelist Emily Howes to the castle to talk about her book The Painter’s Daughters, inspired by Gainsborough’s portraits of his two girls and the striking shift from their lively childhood images to a stiffer, unhappier adulthood. 
Emily shares how she researched 18th-century Bath, its muddy, smelly, party-like medical culture, through visits and sources such as James Hamilton’s biography, Letters from Bath, and books on travel, while noting how little survives from the daughters’ own voices. 
We discuss Molly’s documented illness and Emily’s discovery of a possible porphyria link to the Prince of Wales, as well as Gainsborough’s finances, his wife’s hidden savings, and the sisters’ relationship, which Emily likens to Downton Abbey’s sister dynamics. 
Emily also previews her next novel, Mrs Dickens, exploring Catherine Dickens’s erasure after Dickens left her for Ellen Turner and the fate of their children.
00:46 Why the Daughters
03:20 Bath After Covid
05:57 Money and Marriage
08:18 Research and Sources
09:27 Molly Illness Mystery
12:21 Sisters and Downton
16:05 Blue Boy and Imagination
17:25 Gainsborough at Highclere
22:23 Next Book Mrs Dickens
24:35 Dickens Family Fallout
27:53 Catherine After Separation

You can hear more episodes of Lady Carnarvon's Official Podcasts at https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/podcast/

New episodes are published on the first day of every month.