Paper

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart” (William Wordsworth).

Welcome to Histories of the Unexpected where you will discover the history of things you didn’t know even had a history, like the history of oranges, or the history of cats.

For this episode let us join the A4 ace of history, Professor James Daybell, and the glossiest of sheets suitable for photo printing, Dr Sam Willis , as they look to fill your pages with fascinating facts and anecdotes on the unexpected history of paper.

Sam and James carefully tear along the fold as they take you on a journey through the history of one of mankind’s most important discoveries, paper! From the scholar Dard Hunter and his book on the craft behind paper to Peter Beale’s ‘A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology’, which provides information on the origins of paper in Ancient China, and how it spread across the world to England, this podcast will cover the uses of paper, its origins, and the ways in which it has developed over the years.

Listen out as Sam introduces James to an inventive game involving Tudor kings and an interesting paper contraption.