Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell of the First Afghan War of 1839, where the British invaded Afghanistan and were forced into a disastrous retreat from Kabul. ----more----In 1839 the British controlled India. They had built a mighty Empire. However, the Russians were also building a mighty Empire in Asia. The British worried that a Russian army might invade India. In between Russia and India was Afghanistan. Then the Afghans got a new king called Dost Mohammed. The British were...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France.----more---- This is a time of knights and castles. William the Conqueror had come from France to conquer England. This meant that English Kings now owned land in France. The lost some in battle, but gained other parts through marriage – especially the lands of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Often English Kings would be married to French princesses to help keep the peace between the two lands. However,...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) decide to tell the history of flight. ----more---- We start off with legendary tales of flight like the story of Icarus. Icarus and his father need to escape a castle. They build some wings out of feathers and wax and flap them to escape the castle. They start flying but then Icarus flies too high. As he gets close to the sun his wax melts and his wings fall off. He falls to the ground with a splat. This story actually tells us a lot about what people...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the history of the modern Olympic Games. After last weeks episode on the Ancient Olympic games the girls want to bring the story up to date. Greece was conquered and the Olympics seemed forgotten for 1,500 years. However, after Greece fought and won her freedom again, people wanted to remember all the amazing things that the Greeks had done. This was science and maths, myths and legends. It was also the Olympic games. A Frenchman called Pierre...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of the Ancient Olympic Games.----more---- With the modern Olympic games starting this week. Sophie and Ellie decide to tell the story of how 3000 years ago the Greeks invented the first Olympic Games. Next week they will tell the story of the modern Olympic games 3000 years ago Greece was not one country. The Greeks lived in different cities which all ruled themselves. However, they all worshipped the same Gods, spoke the same language and...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the history of the Vikings' discovery of the Americas – hundreds of years before Columbus.----more---- A thousand years ago the Vikings were fierce fighters and brave explorers. They had already discovered and settled in Iceland. One of them was called Erik the Red. After his enslaved people cause a landslide a neighbour kills them out of revenge. In revenge Erik kills his neighbours. He is forced to leave Iceland for three years as a punishment. He...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell of the History of Football. But before they start they tell everyone the wonderful news that History Storytime won Silver in the British Podcast Awards!----more---- The history of Football starts thousands of years ago in China. The Chinese played a game very like football today. There were two teams and they scored by kicking a ball into a net. The Greeks and Romans also had a game that was very similar to football but which also involved using hands....

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of Lady Jane Grey, the Tudor who ruled England for just nine days.----more---- Henry VIII was King of England. He was married to a Spanish Princess. They had a daughter called Mary. However, Henry really wanted to have a son. He asked the Pope if he could get divorced from his Spanish Princess and marry someone different. The Pope said no. So Henry decided to change the religion of England. England was a Catholic country which meant that...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of the amazing scientist Marie Curie.----more---- Marie Curie was born 150 years ago in Poland. Back then Poland was ruled by Russia and the Russians were not kind to the Poles. The Russians stopped the schools teaching science to the Polish children. However, Marie’s father was a science teacher. He took his school science equipment home and taught Marie there. Marie was very clever and top of her class at school. However, in Poland women...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of Magna Carta, which was signed at Runnymede in 1215, what it was, and what it means today.----more---- King John is not a good man. He is mean to his Barons. He taxes the poor so much that the legend of Robin Hood comes from this period. He loses most of the English lands in France. Now the Barons have to see him all the time which makes them like him even less. King John thinks that he can do what he likes and that laws are for the little...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) are joined by May (age 6) to tell the legends and truth behind of the Founding of Rome.----more---- We start with Aeneas escaping from a burning Troy. The gods tell him that it is his job to find the area where Rome will later be founded. Aeneas has many adventures, including visiting the underworld. He stops off in Africa where he meets Dido, the beautiful Queen of Carthage. They fall in love. Dido wants Aeneas to stay. However, the god Jupiter, reminds...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of the Life of William Shakespeare.----more---- William Shakespeare was born into Tudor England 500 years ago. He wrote some of the most famous plays in history. We tell the story of Hamlet and Ellie points out that this the same story as Disney’s The Lion King. We talk about how Shakespeare's plays are so famous that many people copy them and we watch them even today. William Shakespeare's father was a glove maker and also leant people...

Sophie (age 7) & Ellie (age 5) tell of the Persian invasion of Ancient Greece and the Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis.----more---- The Persians are determined to get their revenge for their defeat at the Battle of Marathon. The new Persian Emperor, Xerxes, decides to conquer all of Greece once and for all. He assembles the largest army the world has ever seen. The army is too big to be taken by sea. So he builds a bridge of boats to get it from Asia to Europe. However, in...

Sophie (age 7) & Ellie (age 5) tell the history of the Persian invasion of Ancient Greece and how it led to the Marathon race. Ancient Greece was a set of city states who ruled themselves. Next door was the mighty Persian Empire. The Persian Emperor told his people what to do. There were a few Greek cities in the Persian Empire. They did not like it. They rebelled. However, the Persians crushed the Greek cities. The Greek city of Athens helped the Greek cities rebel. The Persian Emperor...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of Livia, the most powerful woman in the early Roman Empire.----more---- The Roman Republic is falling. Generals fight to be in charge. Eventually Julius Caesar wins out. Meanwhile, Livia is born to a rich and powerful Roman family. She has a perfect childhood and is married to her older cousin. They have a baby. Then Julius Caesar is murdered to stop him becoming King. Rome is split by civil war. Caesar’s nephew, Octavian, hunts down the...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the history of how the Vikings built kingdoms, explored continents and worshipped their Norse gods.----more---- In our first episode on the Vikings they had invaded England and England was now divided between a Saxon and a Viking Kingdom. Here we see how the Vikings repeatedly invade France. Eventually, the French give the Viking, Rollo, land to keep Paris safe from other Vikings. The land is called the land of the Northman, or Northmandy, eventually just...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of the start of the Viking Age, from the attack at Lindisfarne to the creation of the Danelaw.----more---- Our story starts with the attack on the Lindisfarne monastery in 793AD. The monastery is famous for its treasures and how it helped Britain become Christian. No one is expecting an attack. So when the first heavily armed Vikings storm ashore it is a complete surprise. Monks are killed and enslaved, their treasures are stolen and altars...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of how England and Scotland became Great Britain in the Act of Union in 1707.----more---- England and Scotland had fought wars for hundreds of years. The Romans had built Hadrian’s Wall to keep the Picts out of Roman Britain. The English had later tried to conquer Scotland in the Wars of Scottish independence but had been stopped by William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. However, the wars between the two continued. Scotland even allied with...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the history of the toilet.----more---- They start with toilets in the stone age including toilets of hunter gatherers and then those of the early settlements like that of Skara Brae. When cities are first built by the Mesopotamians and later the Greeks toilets become more sophisticated. They have pipes and drains. However, it is the Romans who take toilets to a whole new level. We hear how they built public toilets which were beautiful. Even among all the...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell how Prince Philip became a decorated war hero in World War 2.----more---- Prince Philip is a young Greek prince. He has been forced to leave Greece so he goes to Britain and joins the Royal Navy. While training he meets the young Princess Elizabeth and they later fall in love. But first World War 2 breaks out. Prince Philip is first sent to the Far East and he helps Australian convoys get their soldiers to Europe. But when Italy declares war on Britain...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of the United States and World War One for the anniversary of America’s entry into the War.----more---- Britain, France and Russia are at war with Germany and her allies. But a war in Europe seems to have little to do with the United States. However, the British battle fleet is far more powerful than the German fleet. So the Germans start to use submarines to sink British ships. German submarines find it difficult to tell the difference between...

Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell some of the best loved tales from Herodotus.----more---- They start with the story of Croesus. Herodotus explains how Croesus was very rich. However, his neighbours were the powerful Persians. Croesus wanted to know if he should go to war with the Persians. He decided to ask an Oracle what to do. But he couldn’t be sure if the Oracles would tell the truth. So he asked different Oracles the same question, “What am I doing now?”. Then he arranged to do...

Ellie (age 5) tells her sister Sophie (age 7) the inspirational story of Helen Keller who overcame deafness and blindness.----more---- Helen Keller is born 150 years ago to a family in Alabama. At 18 months she was struck down by an illness and left deaf and blind. Unfortunately, this also means that she could not really talk because she could not hear or see anyone to copy and learn from. As she grew up Helen Keller was increasingly frustrated at not being able to communicate properly. This...

Sophie (age 7) & Ellie (age 5) tell of the fall of Napoleon - Spain, divorce, Russian disaster to Waterloo and St Helena.----more---- In the third of our Napoleonic series our episode starts with Napoleon at the height of his power. Europe lies before him. Only Britain remains still opposing him. Napoleon decides to launch economic war on Britain. He bans European countries from importing British goods. But people in Europe want the goods. So they keep trying to trade with Britain....

Sophie (age 7) & Ellie (age 5) tell how Napoleon came to power and how his armies were victorious all over Europe.----more---- Napoleon sails to Egypt. He wins a great battle in the shadow of the Pyramids. But Nelson destroys the French fleet, stranding the French in Egypt. Napoleon hears that the French government are losing battles at home. He abandons his army and sails for France. Back in France he takes control and makes himself ruler of France. Like Hannibal before him he crossed...