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- [00:00]
iHeart Radio Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
Guaranteed Human Small businesses are the pulse of every community. They bring people together, create opportunities and drive growth. Chase for Business helps business owners like you with personalized guidance and convenient digital tools all in one place. With that guidance and your determination, you can take your business farther and help build a brighter future for your community. Learn more@chase.com business chase for business make more of what's yours the Chase Mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply. J.P. morgan Chase Bank NA Member FDIC Copyright 2026 J.P. morgan Chase Co.
- [00:41]
Advertisement Voice
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
Pushkin, A clothes store on Oxford street, one of London's busiest shopping districts, in December, the busiest time of the year. It's 2007. A balding man in his late 50s approaches a store assistant.
- [01:57]
John Darwin
Excuse me, I can't find my wife. Or the dogs. The Rockweilers.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
The man isn't making much sense. He claims to have no idea where he is or how he got there.
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John Darwin
Why are there Christmas lights? Isn't it June?
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
No, it's December. But the man is suntanned. Clearly he hasn't been in Britain all winter. Equally clearly there's something not quite right with him. And whatever the problem is, the store don't want it to be their problem. A security guard escorts him to the nearest police station. The man tells the duty sergeant, I
- [02:42]
John Darwin
think I'm a missing person.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
Why do you think you're a missing person?
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John Darwin
Well, if I knew that, I don't think I'd be here now, would I?
- [02:53]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
The man has no ID on him, but he says he thinks his name might be John. John Darwin. Five years earlier, in 2002, a middle aged man called John Darwin indeed went missing In a canoe. He'd paddled out to sea one morning from the beach in the town in the north east of England where he lived with his wife Anne, and said, Anne, he never came back. The battered canoe later washed up on a beach, but no body was dead, ever found. At the time, it raised some eyebrows. The weather had been calm, the sea as smooth as a mill pond. Not the kind of conditions in which you'd expect a canoeist to get into difficulties. Also, John Darwin, it turned out, was a man with many debts. But once the requisite time had passed, an inquest judged that the missing man must be presumed dead. Anne claimed on John's life insurance and moved abroad to start a new life in Panama, a country with a reputation for sunshine and not asking too many questions about where your money comes from. And now here's a sun tanned John Darwin in a London police station saying he's got amnesia. He can't remember anything of the last five years. Nothing at all. It's nonsense, isn't? Must be nonsense. But how to prove it? The police have no grounds to detain John Darwin, so they call his adult sons, who are stunned. For five years they've assumed their dad was dead and now he's back. Britain's newspapers leap on the story and what a deliciously intriguing story it is. Where was I for five years? Amazing mystery of missing canoeist. What's his game? He must be lying. But how to prove it? The year, remember, is 2007. The Internet is less pervasive than today. A young mum reading the news and feeling curious, does something very simple, but something that hadn't occurred to the police or to journalists. She visits Google. She clicks the images tab. She types three John? Anne, Panama. She presses Search. I'm Tim Harford and you're listening to Cautionary Tales. John Darwin worked as a teacher, then retrained as a prison officer. Anne looked after their two sons until they went to school, then got a job as a receptionist at a doctor's surgery. Ordinary jobs that bought an ordinary house in an ordinary village. It wasn't enough for John.
- [06:44]
John Darwin
I'll be a millionaire by the time I'm 50.
- [06:48]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
John borrowed money to buy run down houses to rent out. But tenants were hard to find, let alone tenants who paid rent on time. The houses needed constant repairs, which John lacked the skills to make. The couples struggled to make their loan repayments on the houses or on John's luxury Range Rover with the personalised licence plate. They ran up debt on credit cards. John decided the solution to their Problems was to borrow more money to buy more houses. Two houses specifically, next door to each other. Four story 19th century townhouses overlooking the beach in the faded seaside resort of Seton Carew. The architecture was grand, pointed gables and ornate balustrades. But one of the houses had been converted into 13 bedsits, tiny dingy studio apartments for renting out to low income tenants. John and Anne would live in the other house. Oddly, it had a secret passageway into one of the bedsits next door. A hole in the wall hidden in a wardrobe like the entrance to Narnia. John had worked out all the sums on a spreadsheet. The rent from the bedsits would surely cover all their debts. Anne was not convinced.
- [08:24]
John Darwin
John told her, stop worrying, it'll be fine.
- [08:29]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
It was not fine. The house was far bigger than they needed. Their two sons had now grown up and moved south near London. Heating was expensive. The house had high ceilings, no insulation and draughty, single glazed windows. They couldn't find tenants for all of the bedsits and didn't get on with the tenants. They did have mostly unemployed single men. They were glad they owned two Rottweilers. By the time John Darwin turned 50, not only was he not a millionaire, his financial situation had become desperate. Penalty charges for late repayments were piling up. The Darwins faced bankruptcy. John dreaded the stigma of being declared a failure. But they'd run out of other options. Or had they?
- [09:30]
John Darwin
I think I should crash the Range Rover on the way home from work. We could claim the insurance money.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
John thought some more.
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John Darwin
But I might actually kill myself doing it. I don't want to do that.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
What if he faked his own death instead?
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John Darwin
You could claim the life insurance money.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
Anne was not immediately sold on this plan. She later told the journalist David Lee.
- [10:01]
Anne Darwin
For God's sake, John, you'll be found out and locked up. We both will.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
Nonetheless, she agreed to go along with it. One morning in 2002, John lugs his bright red canoe over the road from his house to the beach. He makes sure there are people around to see him. He paddles out to sea, then down the coast to another deserted beach where Anne meets him with her car. He fills the canoe with rocks and shoves it into the water. Anne drives him to a railway station where he takes a train into the countryside. John planned to lie low for a while by camping, but for some reason he'd taken his sleeping bag with him in the canoe instead of leaving it in Anne's car. It's now sopping wet. He checks into a bed and breakfast under a false name. Anne goes home and calls the emergency services.
- [11:08]
Anne Darwin
This isn't like John at all. He's a very experienced canoeist. But I'm starting to worry something dreadful might have happened.
- [11:18]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
The Coast Guard Agency leaps into action. Dozens of volunteers from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a charity, drop what they're doing and take to the sea to search for the missing canoeist. The search goes on all through the night. And the next day, six boats, a plane, a helicopter. Anne watches from the window of her home. John watches on the television news in his bed and breakfast. The missing man has been named locally as John Darwin. Anne calls her two sons to break the news that their father is missing at sea. One son is on holiday in Canada with where he'd been planning to propose to his girlfriend. They cut short their trip and rush to Seton Karoo, where they find Anne surrounded by people. Family, friends, work colleagues offering support, and the police, who seem to suspect that all may not be as it seems. They're methodically searching the house and asking Anne question after question.
- [12:32]
Anne Darwin
I've told you everything I know.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
After a week, Anne's phone rings. What's happening? Has everyone gone home yet?
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Anne Darwin
Are you mad? Of course they haven't gone home yet.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
John has bought a new sleeping bag. Camping is cheaper than the bed and breakfast, but every night his air mattress slowly deflates and he wakes uncomfortably on the ground. He doesn't have the cash to buy a new one and he obviously can't use a card. He pesters Anne, have their sons still not left?
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John Darwin
I've got to come back. You don't know what it's like for me.
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Anne Darwin
It's not exactly easy for me either.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
After three weeks, the suns go home. The coast is clear and John Darwin returns to Seton Karoo. Cunningly disguised, he's grown a beard. He makes use of that odd secret passageway. When visitors call on Anne, John darts through the wardrobe and hides out in the beds. But soon he starts to take a chance on going out and about. The police have seized his computer, so he visits the library to get online. He starts doing repairs on his rental properties, introducing himself as Tom the handyman. Though his skills are as limited as ever. One tenant later recalls how Tom tried to fix her toilet by tying a plastic bag. Bagged the ball cock. Incredibly, he's recognised only once a tenant sees through the beard and says, aren't you supposed to be dead? John isn't quick at thinking on his feet.
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John Darwin
Don't tell anyone about this.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
And he doesn't the man later shrugs that he thought it was none of his business. John looks through newspaper archives from the year he was born. The death notices A baby called John Jones died in infancy. If he'd lived, he'd have been about Darwin's age. Another John. That's convenient. And Jones is a common surname. Darwin goes to the local registry office and applies for a copy of John Jones's birth certificate. He sends it off to the passport office with a photograph of himself. It can't be this easy to get a passport in a fake name, can it? Cautionary Tales will be back after the break.
- [15:39]
Advertisement Voice
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- [16:10]
iHeart Radio Announcer
Run a business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only IHEART can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business? Think iHeart streaming radio and podcasting. Call 844-844-iHeart to get started. That's 844-844-iheart. This Father's Day, when you ship UPS Air at the UPS Store, your items arrive on time with your money back guaranteed at no extra cost. It's like the father of all shipping services. It shows up to the airport way too early just to play it safe. It's overprotective about all the things that truly matter. And it's always prompt, especially to be with family. Make it your first choice to celebrate your dad. Ship UPS Air with our Money Back guarantee exclusively at the UPS store US retail locations. Visit the upsstore.com airshipping for full details. Terms and conditions apply.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
John Darwin was hardly a criminal mastermind, so how did he know how to get a passport with a fake identity? He learned it from a book. A novel, the Day of the Jackal, was published in the 1970s. The central character, a shadowy assassin, applies for A copy of a dead baby's birth certificate and uses it to get a passport. The novelist learned of this trick from contacts in the criminal underworld. Could it really be that easy? He tried it out for himself before writing about worked. When the Day of the Jackal became a bestseller, the author assumed that the government would quickly find a way to close the loophole. But no, 30 years later, the trick still worked. The government's problem was making links between data held in different places. There was a paper based register of births and a paper based register of deaths, but these records weren't connected. Give the Passport Office a birth certificate for a John Jones and they had no easy way to verify whether or not he'd died already. The world is very different now, of course. Records are computerized and searchable. Information from one source can easily link to another. Back in the early 2000s, that shift to the modern era was taking shape, but slowly and piecemeal. The Day of the Jackal trick wouldn't work for much longer. John Jones got his passport just in time. In 2003, on the first anniversary of John Darwin's disappearance, his two sons visited their mother for a sombre act of remembrance. From the end of Seton Carew Pier, they threw commemorative wreaths into the sea. John watched from the window. When the coroner held an inquest into John's disappearance, the sons visited again, much to John's annoyance. Whenever they came to support their mother, he had to vanish through the wardrobe. The inquest heard the police had found no evidence that Darwin staged his disappearance. A death certificate was issued which gave the cause of death as probably encountered difficulties, as a result of which he died. The sons went home, finally allowing John to emerge through the secret doorway.
- [20:14]
Anne Darwin
Congratulations, you're dead.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
Armed with a death certificate, Anne set about claiming John's various life insurance policies and pensions. John celebrated by playing abba. Money, money, money. It's so funny. The payouts came to maybe three quarters of a million dollars in today's terms. Later, they'd net about the same again from selling properties that would otherwise have been foreclosed on.
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John Darwin
I'm a genius.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
The police had given back John's computer. He spent hours playing online games such as Acheron's Call, a fantasy role playing adventure which his two sons also enjoyed.
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John Darwin
You'll never guess who I've been playing with today.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
The boys.
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John Darwin
But don't worry, they have no idea.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
It's me. In another online game, John befriended a woman who told him she was lonely and bored. He told her his wife was dead and he had no children. She sent him topless photos. He sent her photograph. $50,000 to invest in a business opportunity, he sheepishly confessed to Anne when he realised that the investment was gone. Anne brushed it off. There was plenty more money after all. They travelled to Cyprus with the John Jones passport. Perhaps that would be a good place to start a new life in the sun. But the bureaucracy seemed stifling. They agreed to buy a catamaran, thinking they could sail around the world. Not that either of them knew how to sail. That fell through when John argued with the seller. One thing was clear. They couldn't stay in Seton Karoo and risk someone else recognising Bearded Tom, the handyman. What about Panama? John began to post in forums for expats. He liked what he was told.
- [22:34]
John Darwin
It's going to be perfect for us. A wonderful climate, beautiful countryside. Absolutely perfect in every respect.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
John arranged for them to meet a real estate agent and booked flights. And still worried every time John presented his passport.
- [22:56]
John Darwin
Stay calm. Everything will be fine.
- [23:00]
Anne Darwin
I'm trying my best.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
Panama was beautiful indeed. They got on well with the real estate agent and his wife. At one point, the wife produced a digital camera, a photo of the happy clients. John and Ann stood next to the agent and beamed. The agent's wife gave the photo a file name that included John and Anne and uploaded it to the agency website. The Darwins bought an apartment in Panama City. Anne returned to Seton Carew to sell the last of their property, their two big old houses. They bought a plot of land In Panama, nearly 500 acres of unspoiled jungle next to Lake Gatun, a huge artificial reservoir created as part of the Panama Canal. The plot had no electricity or running water, but they planned to build a luxury villa and open an eco tourism resort. They didn't speak Spanish. They'd ruined themselves trying to run a much simpler property rental business back home. John couldn't even fix a toilet. But sure, build a villa and run an eco tourism resort. Why not? As Anne later reflected, the idea was,
- [24:31]
Anne Darwin
I have to admit, ins.
- [24:36]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
They bought a machete. But before they could get to work on their jungle, they had a problem to solve. They'd come to Panama on tourist visas. To live there long term, they'd need a different kind of visa. And to get it, they had to present a letter from their local police force back home attesting to their good character. Easy for Anne, who led an apparently blameless life as a doctor's receptionist. Tricky for John Jones, who didn't exist. What to do? It might have been wise to grapple with this problem before. They bought an apartment in Panama City and 500 acres of jungle. But they were where they were. John came up with a plan. He'd fly back to Britain, abandon the John Jones identity, re establish himself as John Darwin and claim he had amnesia. If no one could prove where he'd been for the last five years, there'd be no reason for the police not to give him the letter he needed.
- [25:47]
John Darwin
It's perfectly feasible that I could have banged my head and lost my memory. It does happen some sometimes. I'd say I can't remember how I got to wherever I am or where I've been.
- [25:59]
Anne Darwin
How do you account for the suntan?
- [26:01]
John Darwin
I could have been on holiday.
- [26:04]
Anne Darwin
This is crazy. No one will believe you.
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John Darwin
You think of something better then.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
Anne could not think of anything better. John reassured her that thousands of people go missing every year and then turn up again.
- [26:20]
John Darwin
Nobody will be that bothered about me. Don't worry. It'll be fine.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
Three days after John flew back to London, the buzzer rang at the apartment in Panama City. Anne ignored it. Then came a knocking on the door. She ignored that too. A voice with an English accent said, Mrs. Darwin, I need to speak to you.
- [26:50]
Anne Darwin
What do you want?
- [26:51]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
The man explained he was a journalist, David Lee. What was her reaction to the news that her husband wasn't dead after all?
- [27:02]
Anne Darwin
I'm finding it pretty hard to take in.
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Narrator (Tim Harford)
Anne agreed to give David Lee an interview. She had no idea where John had been for the last five years.
- [27:15]
Anne Darwin
I'm as amazed as anyone. There are so many unanswered questions.
- [27:20]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
David Lee wrote up his story and emailed it to his editors with a covering note. She's obviously lying through her teeth, but how to prove it? Later that evening, David Lee and Anne are having dinner when Lee's phone rings. It's an editor at his paper. It's nearly midnight in the uk, but they're hurriedly rewriting the front page after a tip off from a reader. A young woman up late with her baby who says she's a bit of a geek. Go to Google, click on images and type in John and Panama. Lee is astonished by what pops up. He says to Anne, I've got something to show you and I'm afraid it's not going to be very easy for you. Cautionary Tales will be back in a moment.
- [28:29]
Advertisement Voice
America's 250th anniversary is a big event, and if you're promoting a business, your advertising plan needs to be bigger than one channel. Iheart can help you bring your message to life across podcasts and broadcast, meaning your business will show up with scale and depth wherever your customers are listening. America 250 builds up into the July 4th weekend when listeners are traveling, celebrating and tuned in. Let iHeart help you surround those moments. Get started today@iheartadvertising.com that's iheartadvertising.com Run a
- [29:00]
iHeart Radio Announcer
business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers listen to, they'll hear your message. Plus, only iHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. Think podcasting can help your business? Think iHeart streaming radio and podcasting. Let us show you@iheartadvertising.com that's iheartadvertising.com hey sweetie.
- [29:31]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
Your mother showed me this Carvana thing for selling the car. I'm gonna give it a try. Wish me luck. Me again. I put in the license plate. It gave me an offer. Unbelievable. Okay, I accepted the offer. They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway. I haven't even left my chair. It's done. The car is gone. I'm holding a check anyway.
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Advertisement Voice
Carvana, give it a whirl.
- [29:52]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
Love ya.
- [29:53]
iHeart Radio Announcer
So good you'll want to leave a voicemail about it.
- [29:56]
Advertisement Voice
Sell your car today on Carvana.
- [29:58]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
Pick up Fees may apply. In the mid to late 2000s, with the rise of social media technology, researchers such as Danah Boyd began to observe an interesting new phenomenon. It became known as context collapse. A classic example from the time your friend posts on Facebook a photo of you drunk at a party, your employers on Facebook. So's your gran. Just a few years earlier, you wouldn't have been able to imagine how a photo taken at a drunken party might plausibly be seen by your employer or your gran. It was easy to keep a separation between these different contexts in your life. There's now a body of research on how we've adapted to context collapse. We self censor posting only bland content in feeds that are relatively public. We share sensitive content in spaces such as group chats, which are easier to curate. John and Ann Darwin couldn't imagine how a photo taken in Panama might plausibly be seen by the police in northeast England today. It's hard to imagine how such a photo could ever stay hidden. 2007 was right on the cusp of that change in eras. The image was findable on Google. But it hadn't occurred to the police to search or to the nation's top journalists. It crossed the mind only of a geeky young mum. Back in Panama, Ann Darwin looks at the image on David Lee's laptop herself and John beaming at the camera in the office of their real estate agent in Panama City. She's just been telling the journalist how she's as amazed as anyone to learn that John Darwin is still alive. She pauses to consider the implications of that photo.
- [32:16]
Anne Darwin
My sons are never going to forgive me.
- [32:21]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
The police in northeast England had always suspected that John Darwin might have staged his disappearance. But they hadn't found any evidence at the time. When Darwin reappears in London and claims amnesia, they dust off the file. He must be lying. But how to prove it? They appeal to the public for any information about where the missing canoeist had been. A woman calls in a young mum. If you go to Google Images. The chief investigating officer looks at the search results and bursts out laughing. Stupid bastards. It's late in the evening. That photo's bound to be on the front page of tomorrow's papers. They'd better arrest John Darwin before he can do another runner. John has been staying at his son's house, feeling alarmed at the level of media interest. He'd assured Ann that nobody would be bothered. People go missing all the time. Instead, he's gone viral. The canoeman journalists have tracked down his 90 year old father who helpfully explained how John was always obsessed with money. An 80 year old aunt chimes in. I'm a cynic. I don't believe he ever got his feet wet. But at his son's house, John has been determinedly keeping up the pretence of amnesia, or what he guesses amnesia might look like. When his daughter in law serves dinner, he pretends not to know what it is.
- [34:17]
John Darwin
I've never had fish.
- [34:21]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
At 10 to midnight, the police knock on the door and arrest John Darwin for suspected fraud. The next morning a newspaper front page splashes the photo of John, Anne and the real estate agent under the headline Canoes this in Panama, the two Darwin sons put out a statement to the press. We are angry and confused. We will be helping the police in any way we can. Back in Panama, the journalist David Lee reads their statements to Anne. She bursts into tears.
- [35:09]
Anne Darwin
What have I done?
- [35:12]
iHeart Radio Announcer
What sort of mother am I?
- [35:15]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
David Lee thinks to himself. Not a very good one. As the details of the case come out, the jokes keep coming. A photo of the Narnia like secret passageway in John and Anne's old House is published with the headline the Liar, the Witch and the Wardrobe. When John's lawyer appeals for him to be allowed some time with Anne, it's reported with how about a canoodle? A local prankster puts up an official looking sign on the road into Seton. Welcome to Seton Canoe, twinned with Panama. The nation's pedants tirelessly point out that John's canoe was actually a kayak. There's a difference, you know. It's a losing battle. There are so many more jokes you can make with Canoe. But when details emerge of how John got his fake passport using a trick from a famous novel, there's a chance for the headline writers to please the pedants. The day of the kayakle. But amid the hilarity, there's human hurt. The two Darwin sons give a raw interview about their parents. They trampled over our lives for the sake of money. They're as bad as each other. Their father had listened through the wall as they grieved for him. Utterly cruel, selfish and evil. Their mother had become such an accomplished liar, she deserved an Oscar she never tripped up. Then there were the siblings of John Jones, the little baby whose identity John Darwin had stolen. My parents always used to speak about John, said a sister. The family's disgusted. How low can you get? Remember why it was possible for John Darwin to get that fake passport? The Register of Births didn't talk to the Register of Deaths. But that was about to change. Information everywhere was getting digitised, searchable, easier to cross reference from one place to another. In 2010, the philosopher Helen Nissenbaum published a book, Privacy in Context, that explored the implications of that trend. When we care about privacy, she says, what we care about is contextual integrity, rules and norms about how information flows from one context to another. We might not want our medical information to come up in an employment check, or our bank to know our browser history or marketers to see our location data. But the smarter technology becomes, the more effort it takes to stay in control of who can find out what. The idea is a cousin of context collapse, how social media makes us work harder to separate our audiences. Once again, the Darwins stand on the cusp of a change in eras. Nowadays, you couldn't get a fake identity with a dead child's birth certificate. That's a good thing. But it's not only life insurance fraudsters who might want to leave parts of their identity behind. It's people who said stupid things when they were young or sought a fresh start in a new city. After a messy breakup, the easier it gets for others to join the dots about our lives, the more challenging it is to reinvent ourselves. John Darwin bowed to the inevitable. How did he plead to the various charges of fraud?
- [39:33]
John Darwin
Guilty.
- [39:34]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
Anne, however, surprised everyone.
- [39:39]
Anne Darwin
Not guilty.
- [39:41]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
She wasn't denying that she did it. She was saying that John made her do it.
- [39:47]
Anne Darwin
My thoughts never seemed to carry any weight. He had a domineering effect on me and I had no choice but to do what he wanted.
- [39:58]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
Anne's lawyers dug up a little known legal defence called marital coercion. It sank like a canoe full of stones. The prosecution argued that Anne had played an equal and vital role in the fraud, and she'd played it with superb aplomb. The jury evidently agreed, finding Anne guilty as charged. The judge declared that her involvement had been not only efficient, but wholehearted. Anne and John served just over three years in prison. Soon after being paroled, John flew to Ukraine to meet a woman from an online dating site. He didn't yet have permission to leave the country, so he went back to jail again. He now lives in the Philippines with a new, much younger wife. Anne tried to reinvent herself. She dyed her hair and reverted to her maiden name. She wrote a book with the journalist David Lee and donated the proceeds to the Royal National Lifeboat in the institution. A small way to make amends, although
- [41:15]
Anne Darwin
I'm sure many people will wonder whether I really deserve a second chance.
- [41:21]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
Her sons eventually decided that she did. She sees them again, and her grandchildren. On a solo coach trip, she struck up a friendship with some other holiday makers, though one kept looking at her, trying to figure out where he knew her from. Perhaps he quietly did an image search.
- [41:47]
Anne Darwin
I was fairly sure he twigged who I was, and I was grateful he was kind enough not to mention it.
- [41:55]
Narrator (Tim Harford)
There are times when we don't want life to be an open book. Key sources for this episode include two books co written by David Lee, one with Tony Hutchinson, the Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, and one with Ann Darwin. Out of my depth. For a full list of our sources, see the show notes@tim harford.com Cautionary Tales is written by me, Tim Harford, with Andrew Wright, Alice Fiennes and Ryan Dilley. It's produced by Georgia Mills and Marilyn Rust. The sound design and original music are the work of Pascal Wise. Ben Nadaff Haffrey edited the scripts. Cautionary Tales features the voice talents of Genevieve Gaunt, Melanie Gutteridge, Ed Goughan, Stella Harford, Jamal Westman and Rufus Wright. The show also wouldn't have been possible without the work of Jacob Weisberg, Greta Cohn, Corinne Gilliard Fisher, Ben Nadaff Haffrey, Eric Sandler, Christina Sullivan, Keira Posey, and Owen Miller. Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like the show, please remember to share, rate and review. It really does make a difference to us. And if you want to hear it ad free and receive a bonus audio episode, video episode and members only newsletter every month, why not join the Cautionary Club? To sign up, head to patreon.com cautionaryclub that's patreon P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com/cautionary Club
- [43:50]
iHeart Radio Announcer
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