Free Thinking

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Free Thinking: War in fact and fiction

War in fact and fiction

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, War in fact and fiction

Historians Margaret McMillan and Rob Johnson. Novelists Abdulrazak Gurnah and Mia Couto

Historians Margaret McMillan and Rob Johnson and authors Abdulrazak Gurnah and Mia Couto discuss their own work and reflections on war.

From East Africa to Arabia, the First World War to Mozambique, Rana Mitter discusses the impact of war on society and culture. Margaret MacMillan's most recent book is called War: How Conflict Shaped Us and takes a deep dive into the history of conflict. Rob Johnson considers what we gain by exploring the overlooked side of Lawrence of Arabia - his thoughts on warfare and military strategy. And, the end of the Gaza empire, and the clash in East Africa between Belgian, German, British and French forces are explored in novels by Mia Couto and Abdulrazak Gurnah. They compare notes about the way fiction can trace changes in relationships due to war.
 
Margaret MacMillan is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford, a former Reith lecturer for BBC Radio 4 and her latest book is War: How Conflict Shaped Us.  

Abdulrazak Gurnah is a Tanzanian author of nine other novels which have been shortlisted for prizes including the Booker and the Whitbread. His new novel is called Afterlives.

Mia Couto is one of the most prominent writers in Portuguese speaking Africa and his writing has been shortlisted for the Man Booker International. His novel newly translated in to English by David Brookshaw is called The Sword and the Spear and is part of a trilogy, the first part of which is called Woman of the Ashes. 

Rob Johnson has written Lawrence of Arabia on War: the campaign in the Desert 1916-18   

You can find a collection of Free Thinking discussions exploring different aspects of war including debates organised with the Imperial War Museum, the view of former soldiers, literary works by Wilfred Owen, Louis Céline and David Jones https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06kgbyb 

Producer: Ruth Watts

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