In this inaugural episode of HISTORY’S DEVILS, James Crossland and Jayne Friend answer the question of where British Fascism came from, by dialling the clock back a hundred years to the 1920s. In doing so, they delve into the life of Rotha Lintorn Orman – the little-known upper-class alcoholic tomboy who became Britain’s first fascist – and her gang of military has-beens, street-fighters and conspiracy theorists who in 1923 dubbed themselves the British Fascisti. In doing so, Lintorn Orman created a movement that has persist for over a hundred years, rising to prominence in our own times via a new generation of racists, grifters and ambitious politicians. 

Just try and get through this first episode without feeling the weight of Britain's past on the back of the present.

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Further Reading

Robert Benewick, A Study of British Fascism: Political Violence & Public Order (London: Allen Lane, 1969)

Julie Gottlieb, Feminine Fascism: Women in Britain’s Fascist Movement, 1923-1945 (London: I.B. Taurus, 2000)

Martin Pugh, Hurrah for the Blackshirts!: Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between the Wars (London: Pimlico, 2006)

Music by SOULFULJAMTRACKS

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Episode ID: 1000747843142

GUID: Buzzsprout-18603759

Release Date: 07/02/2026, 08:00:00