Kevin Sim

Isis: The Origins of Violence

Historian Tom Holland traces the origins of Isis’ barbaric and sadistic violence which it claims is justified by the tenets and scriptures of Islam.

The Secret Life of the Berlin Wall

Berlin is a place that is indispensable to the imagination, a city where history ticks all the boxes. The longest of all the helter-skelter rides that Berliners have taken through the playground of history ended in 1989 when the Berlin Wall shattered into a million souvenirs. Hundreds of people, mainly young, were killed there trying to escape to the West. The people who built the Wall thought they were building a brave new socialist world. But their dream turned into a nightmare as over time the Wall poisoned, corrupted and brutalized the little world it encircled. In The Secret Life of the Berlin Wall, the dreams and nightmares come dramatically back to life as the spies, informers, double agents and interrogators of Cold War Berlin weave their nervy spells of double lives and double dealing.

Airborne: The RAF at 90

The RAF sprang to life during the First World War. It took off into a dangerous adulthood during the Battle of Britain and the bombing of Germany, and achieved maturity as a delivery platform for the hydrogen bomb. Now, at the lively old age of 90, the RAF fights the Taliban in the War on Terror.