Professor Ed Watts is a reliably brilliant guest on the show. In this episode he looks at Sulla's career and the blight the cast on the Roman Republic. Ed argues that it is impossible to understand any the great characters - Caesar, Cicero, Cato, Pompey and so on - without understanding the scarring effect of Sulla's rule. In Ed's view Caesar emerges from all this as a man with terrible ambition and many faults but ultimately redeemed by his refusal to follow Sulla's example. Refreshingly revisionist stuff.

You can read more about the issues we talk about in Ed's book Mortal Republic. It is extremely entertaining and fast paced without sacrificing scholarship. Highly recommended.

I can't remember enjoying a story more than Peter Marshall's Mother Leakey and the Bishop.

The way Peter tells the story is absolutely brilliant with walk on parts from some very famous characters. At heart though it is a ghost story and the story of how an Anglican Bishop came to be hanged for the crime of sodomy in Dublin in the winter of 1640.

Peter is one of the leading historians of the Reformation and won the Woolfson prize for his book Heretics and Believers. And as I say in the introduction to the podcast the story he has uncovered here is 'an absolute banger!'

We cover the miserable tale of the 4th crusade, the Latin Empire and Anthony gives advice on how to write a Byzantium based historical novel. We had fun with this one and I hope you enjoy it.