Complex Relations: Britain and Russia Across the Centuries w/ Barbara Emerson, Luke Harding, Giles Milton & Marcel Theroux
London
SW1Y 4LG
Inextricably linked, sometimes aligned, often at tense and competitive odds, Britain and Russia have had a complex relationship over the centuries. Barbara Emerson’s latest work of panoramic history, The First Cold War, illustrates how, throughout the 19th century, two great empires went from frosty civility to acrimonious rivalry, into war and then fragile diplomacy. Giles Milton, in his most recent book, The Stalin Affair, tells the remarkable true story of the Allies’ secret mission to wartime Moscow and how, in a desperate bid to defeat Hitler, they forged an unlikely coalition with the Soviet Union, only to then discover Stalin’s terrifying masterplan for its aftermath. And Guardian foreign correspondent Luke Harding’s numerous books on Russia include Shadow State, an investigative account of how Russia’s spies helped elect Donald Trump, backed Brexit, murdered enemies and threatened the very basis of western democracy. Barbara, Luke and Giles will be in conversation with Marcel Theroux, who has delved into Russian history and contemporary Russian society in novels, journalism and multiple documentaries, they discuss this long and difficult history and the complicated, fractious place we find ourselves in today.
Barbara Emerson is Vice-Chair of the Great Britain–Russia Society, having been a faculty associate at Harvard University and a visiting fellow at St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford, where she received her MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. The author of three historical biographies, she formerly lived in Moscow.
Luke Harding is an award-winning foreign correspondent with the Guardian. Between 2007 and 2011 he was the Guardian’s Moscow bureau chief. The Kremlin expelled him from the country in summer 2022 and put him on an official blacklist. He is the author of books including Mafia State, The Snowden Files, A Very Expensive Poison, Collusion and, most recently, Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival.
Giles Milton is the internationally best-selling author of twelve works of narrative history, including Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, Russian Roulette and Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and Checkmate in Berlin. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and have been serialised on both the BBC and in British newspapers. He is also the writer and narrator of the acclaimed podcast series, Ministry of Secrets.
Marcel Theroux is a writer and broadcaster. He has published seven novels to critical acclaim. His second novel, The Paperchase, won the Somerset Maugham Award. His fourth novel, Far North was a finalist for the US National Book Award, the Arthur C Clarke Award, and was awarded the Prix de l’Inaperçu in 2011. His most recent novels are The Secret Books and The Sorceror of Pyongyang. He is a regular presenter of Unreported World on Channel 4.