“Love this!” someone tweeted me when we recently did an episode on Victorian London. “Please do the Stuarts!” This sounded like an excellent idea, and it was, I’m sure, a coincidence that the person who suggested it was a historian specialising in 17th century Britain.

So, here she is. Rebecca Rideal is the author of, “1666: Plague, War and Hellfire”, which covers the Great Plague, the Great Fire of London and a not especially great and indeed largely forgotten war with Holland.

She came by to tell us about the politics of Restoration England, explain who it was who was charged with feeding and caring for plague victims, and combat a few myths about the conflagration which destroyed most of the City of London in the first few days of September 1666.

Also, because she loves a bit of history, we also have a special guest appearance from my New Statesman colleague, Helen Lewis.

Skylines is the podcast from the New Statesman’s cities site, CityMetric. It’s hosted by Jonn Elledge.

Skylines is supported by 100 Resilient Cities. Pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, 100RC is dedicated to helping cities around the world become more resilient to the physical, social and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century.

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