Monthly Archives: May 2026

Foundling. Episodes 1-3 This is a six-part series, presented by journalist Lucy Greenwell and I binge-listened to the first three episodes. Greenwell remembered a story about a baby that was found on the verge in a deserted lane in her village in October 1987. The mother was never found and the baby, Jess, was placed for adoption. So, some 40 years later, Greenwell goes in search of Jess, and when she finds her, Jess is already wondering about her own origins. Jess does a DNA test, and she and Greenwell go back to the village to talk to people who were living there at the time, and one of the villagers suggests that she look at the young women who were working there as nannies at the time. When Jess receives the DNA results, Greenwell realizes that, as a child, she actually knew Jess’ mother who was acting as a nanny in a neighbouring house. Jess finds a half-sister and discovers her mother, but it is a complex relationship that doesn’t turn out as she thought it would.

The Rest is History Episode 644 The Fall of the Incas: Empire of Gold (Part 1) I must confess that I’m not absolutely clear about the Aztecs and the Incas, and I find from this episode that many historians and chroniclers of the time weren’t either, as similar themes and events occur in both of them. Somehow 167 men overcame 24 million Incans. The conquest of the Aztecs was the model. Christopher Columbus’ monopoly was abolished, and now anyone could go to Hispaniola if they shared the proceeds with the Crown. There were rival, feuding networks of Conquistadors, hopping from island to island. The Incas were what is now known as Peru, Western Ecuador, a bit of Colombia and Chile, and they were completely geographically isolated, and unaware of the conquest of the Aztecs. The leader of the expedition, Pizarro, was illiterate, strong and austere, compared with Cortez. In 1524 Pizarro and Diego de Almagro set off exploring, but they were unsuccessful and then in 1526 they set off again. His pilot Bartolomé Ruiz went further south, where he encountered a raft, laden with jewels for inter-tribal trade, so they knew that there was great wealth in the country. Pizarro was recalled to Panama but he refused to go, and only 12 men stayed with him. In 1529 Pizarro went back to see King Charles V and was given a franchise, but not for Almagro (which was to cause problems later). In 1530 Pizarro returned with 200 recruits, including his brothers and six Dominican friars. He promised Almagro the country of Chile, and Almagro stayed behind in Panama. Then Hernando de Soto arrived with more men and importantly, the horses, that struck such fear into the Incas. They crossed into modern-day Peru where they learned of the Inca empire that the Incas themselves called ‘The Realms of Four Parts’. They did not have writing, horses or wheels; it was a totalitarian slave-based society with no private property. There had been a recent civil war in 1532 between brothers Atahualpa and Huáscar which devastated the countryside and splintered the elites. This was the environment into which Pizarro and his men appeared.

How Did We Get Here Episode 3: From the Nineteenth Century to World War I In the 1800s there was still no ‘Palestine’ as such. The Ottomans saw their holdings as provinces, with no territorial identities. Jerusalem itself may have had only 2000 inhabitants. The province was Arabic speaking, with some Turks, Frankish merchants, migrants and pilgrims and travellers. Jews constituted about 5% of the population and they mainly lived in scholarly centres. The European powers each had ‘their’ group to support. The French championed the Maronites, the Russians the Orthodox Christians and Britain the Jews. In 1882 Russian persecution saw the sponsorship of Jewish families to move to what was to become Israel by rich families like the Rothschilds and Montefiores. At this point, Hertzel began talking of a ‘Jewish state’ but there was no sustained ‘Palestinian’ resistance at this stage (the term ‘Palestinian’ was coined by the Ottomans in about 1850). It was still a farming community, and large Arab families sold some land to Jewish purchasers. World War I saw the area become strategically interesting to the European powers. The Sykes-Picot agreement envisaged an internationalized Palestine, with defined spheres of influence for the British, French and Russians. Mark Sykes, the British Middle East expert, later distanced himself from the agreement that bore his name. Episode features Hugh Kennedy, Professor of Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Eugene Rogan, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Oxford University, and historian Simon Sebag Montefiore.

Journey Through Time. I decided to journey through time myself, and went back to the first episode hosted by David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell in April 2025. The Attack That Shook America: German Spies in New York tells the story of the huge explosion on Black Tom Island, an island in New York Harbor next to Liberty Island, since infilled and annexed to Jersey City. The United States was officially neutral, with Germany still operating an Embassy in New York,but the munitions that were stored on the island were mainly exported to the Allies. Von Pappen, who was to reappear on the world stage some 20 years later was working in the German Embassy, and he set up the War Intelligence Centre gathering information in Manhatten. In 1914 Berlin ordered him to sabotage shipping of munitions between US and Europe, and 200 bombings were carried out. Wilson refused to believe that spies were at work, preferring diplomacy. The sinking of the Lusitania caused strong anti-German feeling in US, and Von Pappen was expelled from the US in 1916. Black Tom Island was an obvious target, but no-one tended to take it seriously.