The Scandal Mongers Podcast

Phil returns to the secret side of WW2 with the incredible story of Elzbieta Zawacka, the WW2 female resistance fighter known as Agent Zo. As writer Clare Mulley explains, she was the only woman to reach London from Warsaw during the Second World War as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command, and then in Britain she became the only woman to join the Polish elite Special Forces, known as the 'Silent Unseen'. She was secretly trained in the British countryside, and then the only female member of these SOE affiliated forces to be parachuted back behind enemy lines to Nazi-occupied Poland. There, whilst being hunted by the Gestapo who arrested her entire family, she took a leading role in the Warsaw Uprising and the liberation of Poland.After the war she was demobbed as one of the most highly decorated women in Polish history. Yet the Soviet-backed post-war Communist regime not only imprisoned her, but also ensured that her remarkable story remained hidden for over forty years.You can buy Claire's book here...https://www.amazon.com/Agent-Zo-Fearless-Resistance-Elzbieta/dp/1399601067There’s also information and extracts from Phil’s new book here...https://sites.google.com/view/1945thereckoning/homeYou can order his book now on Amazon UK and Amazon Australia, India and NZ - and it is available all around the world as an e-book and an audio book...https://www.amazon.co.uk/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/139971449X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=#***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers...*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcastThe Scandal Mongers...https://x.com/mongerspodcastPhil Craig...https://x.com/philmcraigYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

This week we look - for the first time - at a novel and Phil is joined by writer Gill Hornby.The Elopement is the third book in a trilogy exploring the world of Jane Austen’s family and the first in the series - Miss Austen - was recently turned into a much praised drama series by the BBC and PBS. Gill research into the world that Jane Austen memorably described has been described as painstaking and emotionally accurate, and her books have even drawn comparisons with Austen’s own writing for their wit, sense of observation…and pointed social commentary, especially about the status of women in Regency England.  You can buy the book at our own bookshop - along with thousands of others.The Elopement a book by Gill Hornby.uk.bookshop.orgThere’s also information and extracts from Phil’s new book here 1945 The Reckoningsites.google.comYou can order the book now on Amazon UK and Amazon India, Australia and New Zealandhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/139971449X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=#***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers...*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcastThe Scandal Mongers...https://x.com/mongerspodcastPhil Craig...https://x.com/philmcraigYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Mok O’`Keeffe returns as co-host and, together with Phil, explores the complex subject of privacy with Tiffany Jenkins, whose new book Strangers and Intimates makes the case that we need to restore the idea of a truly private life back to the heart of our society. So when does the right to know over-rule our right to privacy?Ranging from the Reformation through Victorian melodramas and the struggles of Monica Lewinsky in the 1990s, then coming right up to date with the ‘privacy for me, exposure for thee’ mantra of the celebrity tell-all (such as Meghan and Harry with Oprah Winfrey), this is a fascinating and wide ranging conversation. You can buy Tiffany's book here at our own bookshop...https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/strangers-and-intimates-rise-and-fall-of-private-life-the-tiffany-jenkins/7458523?aid=12054&ean=9781529034165&There’s also information and extracts from Phil’s new book here...https://sites.google.com/view/1945thereckoning/homeYou can order the book now on Amazon UK - and it will be available all around the world as an e-book and an audio book...https://www.amazon.co.uk/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/139971449X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=#***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers...*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcastThe Scandal Mongers...https://x.com/mongerspodcastPhil Craig...https://x.com/philmcraigYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Phil is joined again by the lawyer David Hooper, who has a new edition of his book Buying Silence coming out. David is one of the world’s great campaigners for open, affordable justice and a fierce opponent of the practice - common in London - of the legal suppression of free speech. He acted for Vanity Fair in its long and bitter case against Mohamed Al Fayed, in the notorious Boris Berezovsky affair and in many other cases where money and power combine to suppress fair criticism and comment. Mixing colourful and often funny anecdotes of his legal battles with a clarion call for a new and better system, David is a most entertaining guest.You can buy his book at our own bookshop...https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/buying-silence-how-oligarchs-corporations-and-plutocrats-use-the-law-to-gag-their-critics-david-hooper/7539510?aid=12054&ean=9781785908316There’s also information and extracts from Phil’s new book here...https://sites.google.com/view/1945thereckoning/homeYou can order his book now on Amazon UK and Amazon India, Australia and New Zealand...https://www.amazon.co.uk/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/139971449X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=#***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcastThe Scandal Mongers...https://x.com/mongerspodcastPhil Craig...https://x.com/philmcraigYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Phil is joined by campaigner and writer Julie Bindel, the first person to investigate the grooming gang scandal that has so shocked Britain over the last two decades, and which seems to be continuing. A lesbian rights activist and life long campaigner against violence aimed at women and girls, Julie expected that politicians and state agencies would react quickly the the fact that gangs -mostly of men of Pakistani origin - were targeting, abusing and even ending the life of vulnerable children on a huge scale. But instead she ran into opposition and criticism.This is a story about people desperately wanting to look the other way, make excuses and dismiss a class of teenage girls, girls generally from the fringes of society (the kind she came into politics to help). Julie has been part of it right from the start and is still pressing for the accountability and openness that has been lacking for so long. You can buy her latest book at our own bookshop...Lesbians: Where are we now? a book by Julie Bindel...https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/lesbians-where-are-we-now-julie-bindel/7790288?aid=12054&ean=9781800754270&There’s also information and extracts from Phil’s new book here... https://sites.google.com/view/1945thereckoning/homeYou can order the book now on Amazon UK and Amazon India, Australia and New Zealand...https://www.amazon.co.uk/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/139971449X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=#***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...https://www.youtube.com/@thescandalmongerspodcastThe Scandal Mongers...https://x.com/mongerspodcastPhil Craig...https://x.com/philmcraigYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Our friend Gerald Posner returns to bring his unique insight into the story BEHIND the election of a new Pope - the overlapping financial and sexual scandals that have plagued the Vatican for many decades. Gerald explains why is has proved so hard to reform a famously opaque (and sometimes corrupt) institution - and how a Pope can pursue and punish senior officials caught with their hands in the till. Did you know that the Vatican has a legal system of its own, and a prison?But before that Phil reflects on an extraordinary week of royal news - with a toe-curling but fascinating interview from Meghan, which seemed calculated to stir up old animosities at the Palace, William basking in praise for his recent diplomatic efforts, and yet more talk of a possible reconciliation with Harry. But - with all her talk of ‘slaying dragons' - is Meghan the one standing in the way of that now?You can buy Gerald’s book on the Vatican here at our own bookshop...https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/god-s-bankers-a-history-of-money-and-power-at-the-vatican-gerald-posner/3501574?aid=12054&ean=9781416576594There’s also information and extracts from Phil’s new book here...https://sites.google.com/view/1945thereckoning/homeYou can pre-order the book now on Amazon UK - and it will be available all around the world as an e-book and an audio book...https://www.amazon.co.uk/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/139971449X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=#***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpiDbLiwypTLqMaKnNfxcTAThe Scandal Mongers...https://x.com/mongerspodcastPhil Craig...https://x.com/philmcraigYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

This week we enter the demi-monde of the belle epoch to explore the strange and scandalous story of Absinthe, with writer Nina Studer. By the time it was banned in 1915, the famous 'green fairy' had become the green peril, feared for its connection with declining birth rates and its apparent capacity to induce degeneration, madness, and murderous rage in its consumers. As one of history’s most notorious drinks, absinthe has been the subject of endless myth, scandal, and controversy. Just what we love on here. So how does the secret history of drinking help us understand the past? And will any green liquids be consumed during the podcast?You can buy her book here...https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hour-Absinthe-Notorious-Intoxicating-Histories/dp/0228022207There’s also information and extracts from Phil’s new book here...https://sites.google.com/view/1945thereckoning/homeYou can pre-order the book now on Amazon UK - and it will be available all around the world as an e-book and an audio book...https://www.amazon.co.uk/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/139971449X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=#***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongers*** If you enjoy our work please consider clicking the YouTube subscribe button, even if you listen to us on an audio app. It will help our brand to grow and our content to reach new ears.THE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpiDbLiwypTLqMaKnNfxcTAThe Scandal Mongers...https://x.com/mongerspodcastPhil Craig...https://x.com/philmcraigYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

This week we continue exploring the Second World War by revealing one of its most surprising, colourful and sometimes farcical stories - the two year undeclared war between Britain and Vichy France. Tim Bouverie is Phil’s guest and he tales us through some of the terrific - and little known - stories in his new book Allies At War. Although London and Paris are firm allies when Nazi Germany invades France in May 1940, relationships soon fall apart and true disappears. Then, in July 1940, Winston Churchill - a lifelong francophile - takes the fateful decision to send the Royal Navy to attack the French fleet (to ensure it does not fall into Hitler’s hands). 1,300 French sailors, who had been allies of the British just weeks before, die in this attack.There follows a series of military campaigns and diplomatic intrigues with the (often clashing) personalities of Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill at the heart of them all. You can buy Tim’s book here...https://www.amazon.co.uk/Allies-War-Politics-Defeating-Hitler/dp/1847926231/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0There’s also information and extracts from Phil’s new book here...https://sites.google.com/view/1945thereckoning/homeYou can pre-order the book now on Amazon UK - and it will be available all around the world as an e-book and an audio book...https://www.amazon.co.uk/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/139971449X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=#For anyone in Australia, you can purchase the book here...https://www.amazon.com.au/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/1399714503/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Aj6KiOnX8mB9IxbXa3MSftEn8ltcHpwdCwI_Y1Z9x_6wh1ZDhht_FEQApFtINIK18K6LpvzplQqjfqGwtGCX75E5idzD4XzxO4v5_7lTzseE1lilWhbmDGqQQNh41MCEhUEj3m2d_NqvbpQTzmbwiIy0x7yEhwDJnEK40Qp1ShuiNkayBHilBGbMJ2uS42z_EYICj2G1ukW0iEL0xwjyXCclJ4VwBeo2JkpEpY-vrgUNjbiZJ2WGQHUJe618JbwEOamp0n7LAcY0-C9Jd2K2kMVhcn0qj38FrKQ9kyxmsqk.KcgY2jzaJzHaHZX53DPc4FD3ClSuNzEEmTH0X6-HiG0&qid=1744266867&sr=8-1***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongersThe Scandal Mongers...https://x.com/mongerspodcastPhil Craig...https://x.com/philmcraigTHE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpiDbLiwypTLqMaKnNfxcTAYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)

Phil begins this episode with his thoughts on the rather shocking news that the UK government has pulled back from the already limited inquiries into the ‘grooming and rape gang scandal’. What’s going on?Then Paul French returns to the podcast to share his hugely impressive knowledge of the Far East - through the story of Hong Kong.  The rise and fall of British rule there is of great interest to Phil too, as it connects to his upcoming new book on war and empire. It’s all very topical - because a lot of the story is about China and its view of itself as a great but humiliated nation now recovering former status. Given the huge tariff wars that have broken out this week, Paul has plenty to say about the good and the bad of modern day China and its rulers - and where this crisis might be headed.Paul’s excellent book on Wallis Simpson in China is available here, in our own online bookshop - along with thousands of others. https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/her-lotus-year-china-the-roaring-twenties-and-the-making-of-wallis-simpson-paul-french/7624169?aid=12054&ean=9781783968183Phil’s new book, 1945 The Reckoning, is published on April 24 2025 in the UK, India, Australia and New Zealand. There’s more info here...https://sites.google.com/view/1945thereckoning/homeYou can pre-order the book now on Amazon UK - and it will be available all around the world as an e-book and an audio book...https://www.amazon.co.uk/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/139971449X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=#For anyone in Australia, you can purchase the book here...https://www.amazon.com.au/1945-Reckoning-Empire-Struggle-World/dp/1399714503/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Aj6KiOnX8mB9IxbXa3MSftEn8ltcHpwdCwI_Y1Z9x_6wh1ZDhht_FEQApFtINIK18K6LpvzplQqjfqGwtGCX75E5idzD4XzxO4v5_7lTzseE1lilWhbmDGqQQNh41MCEhUEj3m2d_NqvbpQTzmbwiIy0x7yEhwDJnEK40Qp1ShuiNkayBHilBGbMJ2uS42z_EYICj2G1ukW0iEL0xwjyXCclJ4VwBeo2JkpEpY-vrgUNjbiZJ2WGQHUJe618JbwEOamp0n7LAcY0-C9Jd2K2kMVhcn0qj38FrKQ9kyxmsqk.KcgY2jzaJzHaHZX53DPc4FD3ClSuNzEEmTH0X6-HiG0&qid=1744266867&sr=8-1***We now have a Thank You button (next to the ’three dots’) for small donations that help support our work***Looking for the perfect gift for a special scandalous someone - or someone you’d like to get scandalous with? We’re here to help...https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScandalMongersThe Scandal Mongers...https://x.com/mongerspodcastPhil Craig...https://x.com/philmcraigTHE SCANDAL MONGERS PODCAST is also available to watch on YouTube...https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpiDbLiwypTLqMaKnNfxcTAYou can get in touch with the show via...team@podcastworld.org(place 'Scandal Mongers' in the heading)