The Authors of History Podcast talks to authors of history books from around the world and across history. Celebrating them as authors, talking to them about their inspiration to write and the subjects they write about. Their writing process and challenges they face, new books they have coming up and gets them to recommend a author or history book we all should read. Supporting independent books shops
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On this episode of the authors of history podcast my guest is Wolfson Prize nominated author and historian Lyndal Roper.
Lyndal is a historian of early modern Europe. She grew up in Australia and did her first degree at the University of Melbourne. Since girlhood in Australia she has been fascinated by German history, and she has written on women and the Reformation, witchcraft, and sexuality in the sixteenth century.
In 2011 she became Regius Professor of History at Oxford, the first woman to hold the 300 year old post.
In 2016 she published a biography of the reformer Martin Luther.
Lyndal's book "Summer of Fire and Blood, the German peasants war" was published in 2025 and won the Cundill Prize. It has been shortlisted for the prestigious Wolfson History Prize in 2029. To write this book, she cycled or walked almost all the areas it took place, cycling over 600 km from Strasbourg to Konstanz.
Lyndal is the Holberg Laureate of 2026. won the Holberg Prize In 2016 won the Gerda Henkel Prize for lifetime achievement in history. Currently she holds a Humboldt Research Award (associated with the Free University Berlin) for research in Germany. She is honorary fellow of the History Department, University of Melbourne, fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (2009), fellow of the British Academy (2011), and fellow of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin (2016).
She also holds honorary doctorates from the University of Melbourne (2013) and the University of Basel (2021). In 2021 a portrait of Lyndal painted by Nneka Uzoigwe was hung in the dining hall of Oriel College, Oxford.
She now runs experimental workshops, ‘Moving History’, teaching critical and creative thinking in combination with physical exercise.
Lyndal recommends that we all should read Susan Peterson's book "Burn This Letter - Love and Trouble in a Marriadge of Four"
Lyndal recommends the independant book shop Book-Ish in Crickhowell in Wales (https://www.book-ish.co.uk/)
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26 Oct 2026
Authors of History with Dr Tim Galsworthy
On this episode of the Authors of History Podcast, I’m joined by historian Dr Tim Galsworthy to discuss his inspiration to teach and write, his research into memory, politics and race in the modern United States, with a particular focus on the Republican Party’s relationship with memories of the American Civil War.
Tim joined Lincoln Bishop University in September 2023, having previously taught at the University of South Wales, the University of Gloucestershire and the University of Sussex. He teaches History and Military History across the modern and early modern periods, with a particular focus on the United States, Europe, Britain and the British Empire.
Alongside his teaching and research, Tim is managing editor of the British Journal for Military History and has served on several academic committees. He received his PhD in History from the University of Sussex in 2023, funded by the CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership, and also holds an MPhil in American History from Selwyn College, Cambridge, and a BA in History from the University of Bristol.
His book, The Republican House Divided: Civil War Memory, Civil Rights, and the Transformation of the GOP, is published by the University of South Carolina Press.
Tim recommends In the Pines by Grace Elizabeth Hale and highlights The Reading Room, an independent bookshop in Grantham: https://the-reading-room-grantham.square.site/
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19 Oct 2026
Authors of History with Sam Wetherell
On this episode of the Authors of History Podcast, I’m joined by historian and author Sam Wetherell.
Sam is a historian of Britain and the world based at the University of York, where he teaches and writes about modern British history. His work explores cultural and urban history, race and the environment – and how the places we build shape the lives we lead.
He is the author of two books. His first, Foundations: How the Built Environment Made Twentieth-Century Britain, was published by Princeton University Press in 2020.
His latest, Liverpool: A story of Britain, was published by Head of Zeus/Bloomsbury in 2025 and has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2026 Wolfson History Prize, with the winner to be announced on 1 December 2026.
Alongside his books, Sam writes The History Factory, a semi-regular Substack newsletter.
Sam recommends that we should read The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains by Thomas W. Laqueur
Sam recomends we should check out the independant book shop East Bristol Books (https://eastbristolbooks.co.uk/)
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Who has been a guest on Authors of History Podcast
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Helen Castor
Sara Lodge
Hannah Durkin
Jane Gulliford Lowes
Roger Moorhouse
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Spotify
4.9 / 5
10 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 43 / 100
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Quality
73
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
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