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Writing Displacement: Imperial Russia to 1970s Ireland

Writing Displacement: Imperial Russia to 1970s Ireland

Exile, war and social exclusion shape the lives of the author’s protagonists in The Bratinsky Affair, our Fiction Book of the Month, which takes the enduring experience of displacement as one of its major themes.

A recent article in The Guardian featured a new book of short stories by Colm Tóibín: “Tóibín’s short stories, particularly in his 2026 collection The News from Dublin, are fundamentally concerned with exploring the internal and external lives of characters living at...

A Rocket in the Marshes

A Rocket in the Marshes

In 1944, the Polish resistance managed to recover parts of Hitler’s secret V-2 rockets and passed vital intelligence to Britain, the operation becoming one of the most remarkable, yet overlooked, intelligence successes of the war.
Guy Walters

In a lonely corner of eastern Poland, not far from the River Bug, there is a stretch of countryside that looks entirely unremarkable. The villages are small and sleepy, the roads narrow and uneven, the fields flat and windswept. When I visited last November, a cold...

World War II with Tom Hanks – Review

World War II with Tom Hanks – Review

The documentary series has made an impressive start, combining rarely seen footage with sharp historical insight and confident storytelling.

One swallow does not necessarily a summer make, but the signs are positive that World War II with Tom Hanks will live up to some of its pre-release hype. The World at War, the critically and commercially successful documentary series first aired in 1973, narrated by...

Empire’s Witness: An Interview with Philip James Day

Empire’s Witness: An Interview with Philip James Day

In discussion with Gautam Hazarika, the author reflects on discovering the hidden wartime diary of his grandfather, Corporal Alwyn Day, a quiet and emotionally reserved veteran shaped by extraordinary experiences in World War II.
Philip James Day

Philip, welcome to Aspects of History. Congratulations on the upcoming release of Empire’s Witness: A Soldier’s Secret War Diary 1942–45. What were your memories of your grandfather, Corporal Day, prior to beginning this project, and how and why did his “quiet life...

Operation Berlin, by Michael Ridpath

Operation Berlin, by Michael Ridpath

An aspiring journalist and an historian investigate a murder in the German capital amid Hitler's rise and the collapse of the Weimar Republic.

Operation Berlin is the first of a new historical mystery series set in 1930s Europe which is to be known as The Foreign Correspondent series. Its author is Michael Ridpath, an extremely accomplished one, several of whose previous books I have read and enjoyed. I...

Berlin: Endgame 1945, by Prit Buttar

Berlin: Endgame 1945, by Prit Buttar

A study of the fall of Berlin revealing how rivalries, ideology, and personal testimonies defined the chaotic end of the Nazi regime.
Trevor James

For some of us it might seem that there was little more to add to what we already knew about the last days of the Nazi regime in and around Berlin. Yet this meticulous description and analysis by Prit Buttar proves that this is not the case. His thorough research into...

AoH Book Club: Giles Milton on The Stalin Affair

AoH Book Club: Giles Milton on The Stalin Affair

The historian makes the case that the pragmatic partnership between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin highlights how vital and difficult diplomacy and cooperation are then and today.

Welcome back, Giles – we’re exactly two years on from the release of The Stalin Affair, and that question of the nature of diplomacy between allies seems ever more relevant in recent weeks and months in 2026. The ‘impossible alliance’ you discuss between Franklin D....

The Battle to Keep the War Moving

The Battle to Keep the War Moving

A rediscovered wartime diary shows how the Persian Corridor supply route workedin practice. Not as strategy, but as constant repair under immense pressure.
Philip James Day

In 1942 Hitler turned on Stalin and drove towards the Caucasus, aiming for the oil that would sustain the German advance. If he succeeded, the balance of the war could tilt. To hold them at bay, Stalin needed supplies quickly; fuel, vehicles, and equipment. Britain...