Welcome to the History Tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

Hello everyone, it's Beckett with just a little update for you.

I'm sure you've been wondering where we've been, the library, yes, and assorted bookstores, but not, unfortunately, at the big table that's he's 14 at the House of Wood recording anything.

For you see, Susan has lost her voice. She has a paralyzed vocal cord. In fact, so she does have a voice, but the nature of it would scare small children. Sorry Susan, you know it's true.

This hasn't been a short term thing. She's been suffering from this since before Christmas, and it looks to be late March before we can hope to hear the dulcet tones of her voice again.

She has become very adept at both sign language and interpretive dance, neither of which translates well to an audio podcast, so we have a couple of friends who have volunteered to step in.

And there might be a month or so of format changes, since I can hardly expect my new crew to nerd out as hard as Susan and I do, so watch this space, and I'll have some movie cast to you soon.

Thank you so much for the outpouring of support on the Facebook page and on Twitter. For those of you who don't know, Susan is the voice of our Twitter feed, so if you'd like to pass on some get-wells, head over to At The History Ticks with an X and begin the banter, or typing fingers are as fast as ever.

Thank you so much for your patience, and all the messages that have headed our way, and we'll be back with you just as soon as we can. Bye!

Thanks for watching!