Last month I had the pleasure of speaking about Ibn Firnas and my new book with bestselling historian Dan Jones. If you’re not familiar with Dan Jones, you can learn about his books and other work, including his new book on Henry V, here.
I appreciated the chance to chat about Ibn Firnas’ career, and the broader context of medieval Islamic civilization that shaped Ibn Firnas’ life, on a series that’s otherwise focused on the Plantagenets and medieval European history.
Dan is a very knowledgeable historian who manages that tricky balance between keeping history accessible and entertaining for wide audiences. This is such a difficult balance to strike!
Long before Leonardo Da Vinci was born, there was a genius poet and astronomer who dreamed of human flight. Dan is joined by the University of Edinburgh’s Glaire Anderson, historical advisor to the latest Assassin’s Creed game, to talk about the strange experiments and obscene poetry of Abbas Ibn Firnas.
Jones, Dan. “In Conversation | Time Travelling with Video Games – with Glaire Anderson.” This Is History: PLUS. Accessed November 17, 2024. https://open.spotify.com/show/2OwTnxm4YpB6mH0tLVYc2s.
We also talked about my work in videogames:
Dan and Glaire return to geek out about their favourite historical buildings and their love of gaming. Glaire explains how she was tasked with the difficult job of bringing Medieval Baghdad to life, without any archeological remains, in the latest Assassin’s Creed game.
Jones, Dan. “In Conversation | Time Travelling with Video Games – with Glaire Anderson.” This Is History: PLUS. Accessed November 17, 2024. https://open.spotify.com/show/2OwTnxm4YpB6mH0tLVYc2s.