Month: November 2011

Andrew Marr discusses the writing of history with Peter Englund, Norman Davies Alison Weir and Boris Johnson. Norman Davies turns to the vanished kingdoms of Europe to explore an alternative history of the continent and to reclaim the stories of the vanquished. While the Swedish historian Peter Englund puts the lives of ordinary people throughout Europe at the heart of his re-telling of the First World War, the London mayor Boris Johnson celebrates the vitality of the capital through the lives of the great and good. Tudor specialist, Alison Weir who has published both academic history and historical fiction, argues against the blurring of these very distinct genres.

Produced by Katy Hickman.

Andrew Marr discusses Australia's cultural heritage with the prize-winning authors Thomas Keneally and Kate Grenville, and the opera singer and composer Deborah Cheetham. Keneally has embarked on a history of Australia through its people: from convicts and Aborigines, settlers and bushrangers, patriots and reformers, and he builds up a picture of the country's unique national character. For her latest trilogy Kate Grenville delves back into Australia's history and the first three generations of white settlement, to explore the complex relationship contemporary Australians have with the past. Deborah Cheetham is one of the country's "Stolen Generation", taken from her Aboriginal family when she was months old and fostered in a white community. She discusses how she has mined her lost heritage for her latest composition. Produced by Katy Hickman.