Writing the Road to War

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BBC Radio 4 - Writing the Road to War

Horatio Clare travels across Europe following the road to the war in Ukraine.

Horatio Clare travels across Europe following the road to the war in Ukraine with some great writers as his companions.

There’s a road which leads directly from every British front door to the horrors of Kyiv or to Mariupol.  It seems very far away as Spring emerges in Britain, a Spring in which this European war, though fought also with British aid, money and weapons, is still relegated to screens, radios and newspapers.  In this immersive audio journey,  we join travel writer and broadcaster Horatio Clare, aboard a convoy delivering aid as he travels from rural Dorset to the Ukrainian border.  

As Horatio takes his road to war, influenced by the great writers before him, he sets down his own prose journey, with the words of Matthew Arnold, George Orwell, Alan Moorehead, Martha Gellhorn and Zadie Smith in his ears.  When he hits Munich, history turns to current affairs and we hear of his direct encounters with Ukrainian refugees.  After crossing the plains of Hungary and the rolling hills of Romania, he finally reaches the Ukrainian Border.  There he delivers aid to Ukrainian teenagers and hears their personal accounts of leaving their homeland - and their families - to find safety away from the war.

Produced by Helen Needham in Aberdeen
Original Music Composition by Anthony Cowie
Mixed by Ron McCaskill

Readings by Richard Blair, Gary Watson, Corine Purkis, Joseph Arkley and Zadie Smith.

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