106. Charles Spencer; Historic Monarchs, Worldwide News Reporting and the Ghosts of Althorp
Release Date: 09/24/2020
125. Christmas Special 2021; Sathnam Sanghera, Lisa Jewell, Matt Forde, Anne Sebba, Olly Mann, Greenham Common and more
The Big Travel Podcast
Authors Anne Sebba on the Royal abdication, Sathnam Sanghera's dismal Christmas restaurant, Lisa Jewell's Boney M in Barbados, adventurer Jamie Douglas-Hamilton rowing to the Antarctic, satirist Matt Forde in an NYC Irish bar, podcaster Olly Mann’s disappointing LA Santa, artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian Muslim Catholic Christmas in Marrakesh, adventurer Sam McManus's ancient Spanish fiesta, Festival promoter Huw Win's Thai rainforest & Nobel Peace Prize winner Rebecca Johnson's Christmas at Greenham Common.
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124. Firouz FarmanFarmaian; Escaping Tehran, Kashmiri Houseboats, Trekking Kyrgyzstan, Rock Bands and Contemporary Art
The Big Travel Podcast
Born in Tehran, the descendent of a nomadic tribe, Contemporary Artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian's family scattered after the Islamic Revolution. He grew up trekking mountains and deserts, touring with his Indie rock band and now with his internationally acclaimed art. With a gallery in Tarifa, Spain, and a new base in Athens, he travels the globe sourcing ideas and materials with craftswomen in remote regions and will be representing Kyrgyzstan at the Venice Biennale with the exhibition Gates of Turan.
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123. On Location in Marbella Old Town with Tour Guide Javier Gonzalez
The Big Travel Podcast
A journey through the maze of Marbella's 16th Century cobbled lanes surrounding the old 'Orange Square', encountering flamenco singers and opera stars and sampling some of the coast's most wonderful tapas. With tour guide Javier Gonzalez and staying at the stunning Anantara Villa Padierna Palace, with its classical Italian design and sophisticated yet arty vibe.
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122. Matt Forde; Billy Connolly in New York, Liam Gallagher in Berlin and Nick Leeson's Worldwide 'British Scandal' Jaunt
The Big Travel Podcast
Comedian, political satirist and Spitting Image star Matt Forde talks accosting Billy Connolly in New York, 'dying' on stage in Luxemborg, pints of Carling in ex-pat clubs in Bahrain, Nick Leeson's luxury hotel dash around the world, spending 3 months locked in a first floor flat, an emotional pilgrimage to the Ghostbusters fire station, being the voice of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump (yes he does give us some excellent impressions) and posh people behaving badly on the podcast British Scandal.
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121. Sam McManus; Adventure Travel When the World Closes, Costa Rica, Green Northern Spain and the Unexpected Pull of Home
The Big Travel Podcast
Just as the world was closing Sam McManus from YellowWood Adventures took a daunting gamble and hopped on a plane to Costa Rica. We talk about how the pandemic can change travel (even for the better), tourism being potentially a means for good, eco-tourism and re-forestation, surfing, small pueblos in the green hills of Northern Spain, his wonderful travelogue about his explorations - Wax and Gold Journeys in Ethiopia & Other Roads Less Travelled - and feeling the pull of friends, family and home.
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120. UK TRAVEL UPDATE; Travel Opens Up, Vaccines, Quarantine and a Call to Action to The Government
The Big Travel Podcast
Good news at least for those people who have had two UK administered vaccines. From 19th July we can now go to amber list countries without quarantining on return. BUT at the moment this is just for UK administered vaccines meaning the country is not yet open to inbound tourism. Travel needs to be two-way! We need people in the UK to support our business too. Whilst we are aware it needs to be done safely we also need to get aviation and travel moving even further.
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119. UK TRAVEL UPDATE; New Rules, Traffic Lights, Vaccinations
The Big Travel Podcast
A Big Travel Podcast special on the latest UK Travel Update; the new rules, the changes in the traffic light ratings, vaccinations soon to be taken into account and much more. A ten minute episode of essential listening.
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118. Olly Mann; Guns On Trucks in Malawi, Swim-Up Bar Piña Coladas, Greyhounds and The American Dream
The Big Travel Podcast
Olly Mann, from Answer Me This podcast fame, his new The Retrospectors and much more, loves nothing more than researching trivia especially with travel. We talk Wrigley’s chewing gum and decapitation, leaving your baby outside a pub, people who get erections on public transport, a love for Luton Airport, the misleading American Dream, cocktails worth shortening your life for, having a bottom accident on an African roadside (yes this episode does feature the S word) and much more.
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117. Huw Wyn; Arabian Nights in Cairo, Hitching Through Nepal, Tibetan Medicine in Scotland and Tom Hardy Dropping into his Festival
The Big Travel Podcast
Into The Wild Festival promoter Huw Wyn grew up in his mother’s hotel in Wales then moved to Spain. We talk growing up feral in Andalucia, hitchhiking across Europe, fish-packing in the Netherlands, Glastonbury, Arabian Nights in Cairo, the poetic side of being a London bin man, orphanages in India, Mother Theresa in Calcutta, meeting the Dalai Lama, studying Tibetan medicine in Scotland, the remote Buddhist kingdom in Ladakh, hitching 2000 miles through Nepal, Tom Hardy at his festival and much
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116. Anne Sebba; Parisian Women and Nazis, Film Stars in Rome, ‘Communists’ in Sing Sing Prison
The Big Travel Podcast
The author of one of Lisa’s favourite books, Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s, Anne Sebba explores the lives of women ‘writers and fighters’. As a journalist and author she's worked in film-star-filled 70s Rome, moved to New York with a baby, camped in the Mexico desert with Wallis Simpson’s free-diving step-son, had her camera film thrown into the Ganges while tracing Mother Theresa and, for her most recent book on Ethel Rosenburg, to Belarus and Sing Sing
info_outlineEarl Spencer, best-selling author and historian, has a superb talent for bringing history to life. His new book, The White Ship, explores England’s worst ever maritime and royal disaster, a tragedy that changed the course of European history forever. From childhood trips to an unknown Ibiza, friskings at the iron curtain-era Russian border to covering everything from Cannes to Cairo as an NBC news reporter, the late Princess Diana’s younger brother has fascinating travel tales not least those starting in Althorp, the grand estate the Spencer family have called home since 1508.
On this episode we cover:
The 900-year-old tragedy that shaped British history
The inspiration behind his new book, The White Ship
Henry I and 19 years of civil war
The perils of being intoxicated whilst driving
Sea wolves, sea elephants and sea goats
Drunken oafs chasing away monks
His Queens of England speech at Leeds Castle that inspired the book
Henry I, a great king overshadowed by other Henrys
Stellar reviews of the book
Taking a flash point in an interesting Monarch’s reign
The family homestead of Althorp, in the family since 1508
The stately homes of Britain contributing to national heritage
His imposing and rather terrifying figure of a grandfather
The stately home that was burnt down for one scene in a Hollywood movie
The 98% income tax scuppering many stately homes
Sleeping in the nursery with flickering candles and the sound of night watchmen
Like being in a museum with a very scary man in charge!
The rumoured ghosts in Althorp
The ancient sound of people being killed in the former weaponry room (!)
Travelling to over 30 countries as an NBC News reporter
From Islam in Malaysia to the Cannes Film Festival
The privilege of being paid to travel the world
The terrible hotel fire he reported on in Cairo
The man living in a small cage in Hong Kong
Interviewing Mel Gibson in Cannes
Don’t mention the diet to the King of Tonga
Lisa’s Dad and the Queen of Tonga
Lisa’s podcast for India and Pamela Hicks
(India was Princess Diana’s bridesmaid
Meeting Captain Cook’s tortoise
Lisa remembering the whole of Tonga being on a diet
People thinking you want your own food when travelling
Baked beans in Fiji, fish and chips in Tonga
Moving to Johannesburg and exploring Soweto and Swaziland
The Scottish man apologizing for slavery
Porpoises by the sea making for a better school run than Northampton
The Peter Ustinov journey that inspired a trip behind the iron curtain
Being frisked at the Finnish-Russian border
His step father ‘being treated better in Nazi Germany’
Visiting Paris with his father and sisters in the late 70s
His mother taking them to a tiny unknown island called Ibiza
Returning to Normandy to research the book
The conflict of development and over tourism
Canada having the most cleverly persevered places
Civilised wilderness at the lakes north of Toronto
Covid being terrible, but has it addressed over tourism..?
The joys of teenage interrailing to Istanbul, Dubrovnik…
Being kicked out of the carriage somewhere in Romania
Passing fields of Oxen ploughing fields
How the discomfort of travel can create the most memorable times
Sleeping in a Graveyard in Northern Spain
Supertramp, the soundtrack to the foothills of Kashmir and the children who had never seen a Walkman