Hi, I’m Petra Tabarelli – a cultural historian with a soft spot for the cultural memory of England, staged history and authenticity and the way places hold stories.
My job is to bring history to life. I’m driven by the belief that history is more than facts and dates — it’s shaped by feelings, memories, atmospheres; it is a living mood that can be staged and experienced. So I help people in the creative and cultural worlds give the past a form that can be felt, heard and remembered.
I’ve spoken and sung on stage, curated a scenic choir performance, and brought lectures to life by stepping into character — from the calm, factual, slightly chaotic Detective Inspector Carla Conker to the curious, quick-witted traveller Martha Robinson of 1845.
Before that, I spent years in football history, one of the few women working with major institutions like The IFAB and the German FA. Speaking live, giving interviews and translating specialist knowledge for broad audiences taught me how to hold a space with clarity and poise.
In my main profession I’m head of a municipal archive and a heritage-site manager. In this work I’ve launched projects that show archives don’t have to be dusty or distant. I know how to turn complex material into something felt — whether in a room, on a stage or within a historical setting.
My focus lies where history, aesthetics and emotion meet, with a particular eye for the cultural memory of England. I work with atmosphere and emotional scenography to make the past tangible — creating settings in which memory already lingers, waiting to be brought to the surface.
I help shape narrative depth, visual and tonal coherence, and an awareness of what happens in the space between stage and audience, between place and visitor: tone, meaning, resonance.
My aim is that what is shown does not simply pass, but leaves a trace.
My fascination with English culture and how memories are staged was sparked by my Midsomer Murders passion project.
This website is a side project, collected with a historian’s care for details and a love for the atmosphere in Midsomer Murders. It’s an unofficial, historian-curated website.
With attention to subtext.
With care for atmosphere.
With a sense for the past.