The Truth About the Little Mermaid
4/7/202643 min
What is a mermaid? Do sirens, selkies and Aquaman fit into this category? And how far back in history do they go?
Kate is joined by Diane Purkiss to discuss the Little Mermaid, both the Disney and Hans Christian Anderson versions, and more!
Professor Diane Purkiss is a Fellow and Tutor of English at Keble College, Oxford. She specialises in Renaissance and women's literature, witchcraft and the English Civil War.
This episode was edited by Tim Arstall. The producer was Sophie Gee. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.
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First 90 secondsKate Lister· Host0:00
Do you want even more shocking and scandalous history, like why the ancient Greek statues had such small manhoods, or what went on behind closed doors in the Georgian era? Well, sign up to History Hit, where you can see me discover the scandalous side of history as well as hundreds of hours of original documentaries, plus new releases every week, covering everything from prehistoric Scotland to the Treaty of Versailles. Sign up to join me in locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe. Hello, my lovely Betwixtors. It's me, Kate Lister. Welcome back to Betwixt the Sheets, the podcast where we root around in the pants of history for your entertainment. But before we can go any further, dear listener, I do have to tell you once again, this is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults about adult things in an adulty way, covering adult subjects, and you should be an adult too. And we call that the fair dos warning because if you keep listening and your feelings get hurt, fair dos. We did tell you it might get a bit spicy. Right, on with the show. [instrumental music] The voyage today has not started well. The Betwixt team is feeling, ugh, not their best. [person vomiting] Freddy is vomiting over the bow, Stu is on the verge of starting a mutiny, and Sophie has been clinging onto the mast for dear life since before we even left. Tom, Hannah, and Tim are doing their best to keep the boat afloat, and I've given up hope altogether. But what's that over there? Let me get out my telescope. [gasp] Oh my, it is a beautiful woman