The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
I must own up to a long preoccupation with Berlin. This began with my first foray to the then beleaguered city. It was in 1961 and I was a young platoon commander in the Rhine Army, given responsibility with my soldiers for the safe passage of a resupply train for the...
The Story of Berlin One of the great European cities, even before the fall of the wall Berlin has been unique in Germany. The author of a new history of the city describes its exceptional nature within the wider German state. ‘Berlin is home to such an audacious set...
Barney White-Spunner, what first attracted you to the period or periods you work in? Personal experience. I have been very lucky in that my military career has exposed me to events and places which I want to understand in greater depth. Being a soldier also gives you...
Five Books By My Bed Maybe holidaying at home will give me more time to read this summer. I do hope so. I have never found the Mediterranean combination of sun and sand to be very hard back friendly but hopefully this year the garden and coastal breezes of the West...
58 years ago JFK gave one of his best speeches. Speaking to huge crowds in West Berlin, he called on the free world to stand by Berliners divided by the Berlin Wall and threatened by their Communist neighbours. “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of...
