Bamber Gascoigne - Television and Books

Television and Books

Gascoigne is the author of Murgatroyd's Empire, a 1972 satirical novel concerning an entrepreneur who finds an island of pygmies, and trades them arms for treasure, recreating the development of European medieval weaponry and armour.

In 1977, Gascoigne wrote and presented The Christians, a thirteen-hour television documentary series on the history of Christianity, produced by Granada Television and broadcast on ITV. He wrote a companion book, under the same title, with photography by his wife, Christina Gascoigne, published by Jonathan Cape.

He wrote Quest for the Golden Hare, a 1983 account of the internationally publicized treasure hunt associated with the publication in 1979 of Kit Williams book, Masquerade. On 8 August 1979, Gascoigne was witness to the burial by Williams of a unique jeweled, solid gold hare pendant in an earthenware jar "somewhere in Britain". The book documents the search and a scandal associated with finding it.

In 1987, Gascoigne presented a documentary series of six 30 minute programmes on Victorian history, Victorian Values, which looked at how Victorian society put in place the infrastructure of the modern welfare state, also produced by Granada Television.

He was the writer and presenter for the TV series The Great Moghuls, a study of the Mughal Empire of India. The series was also accompanied by a book of the same name, again with photographs by his wife, and has been reprinted numerous times.