In Our Time: The Riddle of the Sands

Melvyn Bragg is joined by Rosemary Ashton, Tim Blanning and Richard Evans to discuss Erskine Childers's 1903 adventure story, which presciently imagines a German invasion plan for Britain. But how had relations between Britain and Germany deteriorated to such an extent? The two nations had fought together at Waterloo and profoundly influenced each other's literature and philosophy. How could the ties of Anglo-Saxon kinship be buried in the mutual tragedy of the Somme?