The Paradise Man
John (‘Paradise Lost’) Milton, poet of the only English Republic, Cromwellian enthusiast, advocate of freedom of worship, supporter of divorce, nearly lost his head on the Restoration of Charles II, saved at the last moment by fellow poet and royalist, Andrew Marvell.
Introducing Barbara Villiers
The most beautiful, intelligent, sensual and dangerous of King Charles II’s many mistresses. Renowned for her intelligence, charm, ferocity and luminous beauty, she shagged her way to the top with both male and female lovers, but remained ‘The Lady’ to the end. Princess Di? Forget it!
For Dreamers Only
Faded hippy Dan finds solace in his ancient sixties Wurlitzer juke box. But out of nostalgia rises a Lady called Luck, involving ‘angels unawares’ and overseas bequests, so that Dan is able to strum at the end, ‘Let your love flow on with the smallest of dreams…’
The Shortest Way with Dissenters
Daniel Defoe’s fiery satire against the Church of England made it a laughing stock. Defoe’s punishment – three days in the stocks in the centre of a London mob.
Service for St Hal
Dai, the whisky preacher and his bizarre but human comrades, celebrate the death of their friend Hal. Though the Righteous persecute, Hal is duly canonized and they have a great day at the races.
Mary Kingsley
One of those indomitable Victorian women who turned their world upside down. The only woman ever to explore the interior of theCongo and even had a mountain named after her. At the very height of the British Empire, she took up the cause of Freedom for the Africans even against Parliament and the Prime Minister himself.
Xanadu II
Charts breakdown of marriage. Mary-Rose in quest of the Perfect Penguin. Her husband praises Fergus’s poetry, hunts for the Primeval Rotifer, and ends up in the Home for the Bewildered. He is soon released. Who really was the loon?
147 Babylon Gardens
The Hippy dream and the Manson nightmare surface in an English setting. After the Apocalypse, Foul Ushers and White Attendants set up a ‘Long Grey Period’ known as ‘the Seventies, eighties, nineties, and beyond…
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