Assassins' Deeds - my podcast interview with BBC History Magazine

Very interesting to be interviewed about my latest book Assassins' Deeds. A History of Assassination from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day (Reaktion Books) by Rachel Dinning of BBC History Magazine for their podcast.

We ranged over: 

what was history's first assassination?

when and where were the powerful and famous most at risk of assassination? 

how negligent were targets about their own safety?

do assassinations work, and what unintended consequences have they had?

what are assassins' favourite methods?

how many victims were not the assassin's first target?

what kind of people become assassins? 

what are history's strangest assassinations?

who was the world champion at surviving assassination attempts?

what were the ethical arguments put forward in favour of assassination and who advanced them?

the murder of Wat Tyler, of Mary, Queen of Scots' husband, Lord Darnley, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the assassin who nearly killed Hitler, women assassins

You can hear the podcast here https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-history/assassinations-from-the-ancient-world-to-jfk/

Malaria worry + 1381 and all that

Last month there was some good news on malaria (see my blog of April 11). Now there’s some bad, with worrying signs that the parasite is becoming resistant to what is at present the most effective drug for treating the disease. The trend has appeared in Cambodia, where use of the drug is often poorly controlled and where fakes are sold widely.

Scientists say there is no cause for immediate alarm, but earlier anti-malarial drugs have been undermined by resistance starting in this part of the world. A million people a year die from malaria, and it’s estimated that no less than half of the world’s population is exposed to the disease.

On this day….628 years ago, a group of government officials rode into Brentwood in Essex, and summoned people from the villages around to come and pay the hated poll tax – raised to pay for the Hundred Years’ War. A hundred turned up, and stoned them out of town. It was the start of the Peasants’ Revolt.

The rebels would plunder Rochester and Canterbury, and take control of London, burning down the Savoy Palace and many other buildings. They killed tax collectors and foreigners, then they executed the Chancellor and the King’s Treasurer. Eventually, the authorities managed to murder the rebel leader Wat Tyler, and make enough concessions to con his followers into going home. The government quickly disowned the promises it had made, and pursued the rebels mercilessly, carrying out so many mass executions that there was a shortage of gibbets. For the full story, see A Disastrous History of Britain.