About Nicholas Walton

NBN Episodes hosted by Nicholas:

John Lloyd and Cristina Marconi, "Reporting the EU: News, Media and the European Institutions" (I. B. Tauris, 2014)

December 5, 2014

Reporting the EU

John Lloyd and Cristina Marconi
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

How those within the Brussels Beltway in the EU institutions must pine for the simple days of the past. Not only was the European project in itself fa…

Matthew Carr, "Fortress Europe: Dispatches from a Gated Continent" (New Press, 2012)

November 19, 2014

Fortress Europe

Matthew Carr
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

From London to Rome, Paris to Stockholm, there is no other contemporary issue that can move the general public's political needle quite so quickly as …

Mark Corner, "The European Union: An Introduction" (I. B. Tauris, 2014)

October 16, 2014

The European Union

Mark Corner
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

Some say it should be a loose collection of sovereign nation states; others say it should aspire to be a kind of super-nation state itself. Or is it, …

James Copnall, "A Poisonous Thorn in Our Hearts: Sudan and South Sudan's Bitter and Incomplete Divorce" (Hurst, 2014)

June 20, 2014

A Poisonous Thorn in Our Hearts

James Copnall
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

July 2011 saw that rarest of events - an attempt to resolve a conflict in Africa by the redrawing of borders. It saw the birth of South Sudan as a ful…

Luuk van Middelaar, "The Passage to Europe: How a Continent Became a Union" (Yale UP, 2013)

June 28, 2013

The Passage to Europe

Luuk van Middelaar
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

At the end of the 20th century, it looked like history was being made. After a century that had seen Europe dissolve into an orgy of bloody conflict n…

Martin Plaut and Paul Holden, "Who Rules South Africa?" (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2012)

November 7, 2012

Who Rules South Africa?

Martin Plaut
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

Anybody who has been following the news in recent months knows that bloodshed has returned to South Africa. The recent violence and deaths among strik…

Jenny Trinitapoli and Alexander Weinreb, "Religion and AIDS in Africa" (Oxford UP, 2012)

October 16, 2012

Religion and AIDS in Africa

Jenny Trinitapoli and Alexander Weinreb
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

The liberal media in the Western World takes a firm line on how two of the big issues facing Africa intersect - bluntly speaking Africa's high levels …

Robert Bucholz and Joseph Ward, "London: A Social and Cultural History, 1550-1750" (Cambridge UP, 2012)

August 17, 2012

London

Robert Bucholz and Joseph Ward
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

Not long ago I had a discussion (prompted, I think, by a poll in The Economist) with my colleague about which city on earth could boast that it was th…

Bruce Whitehouse, "Migrants and Strangers in an African City: Exile, Dignity, Belonging" (Indiana UP, 2012)

August 17, 2012

Migrants and Strangers in an African City

Bruce Whitehouse
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

Every so often a book lands on my desk about something so obviously interesting that I have never really considered it before. Bruce Whitehouse's Migr…

James Rodgers, "Reporting Conflict" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

August 11, 2012

Reporting Conflict

James Rodgers
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

One of the hardest jobs in journalism is making sense of conflict. Seeing through the fog of war and through what each side wants you to report is fan…

Steve Kemper, "Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles Through Islamic Africa" (Norton, 2012)

July 20, 2012

Labyrinth of Kingdoms

Steve Kemper
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

Three years ago I travelled overland with my wife from Victoria Falls through Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It felt like we were on a real …

Richard Bessel,  "Germany 1945: From War to Peace" (Harper, 2009)

July 2, 2012

Germany 1945

Richard Bessel
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

One chilling statistic relating to 1945 is that more German soldiers died in that January than in any other month of the war: 450,000. It was not just…

Mary Harper, "Getting Somalia Wrong: Faith, War, and Hope in a Shattered State" (Zed Books, 2012)

May 29, 2012

Getting Somalia Wrong

Mary Harper
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

Several months ago I interviewed Steve Bloomfield, the author of a book on African football, for New Books in African studies. As usual, I ended the i…

Orla Ryan, "Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa" (Zed Books, 2011)

April 27, 2012

Chocolate Nations

Orla Ryan
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

When was the last time you ate some chocolate? If you live in the developed world there's a strong chance that you've been munching on some fairly rec…

Richard Bourne, "Catastrophe: What Went Wrong in Zimbabwe?" (Zed Books, 2011)

April 2, 2012

Catastrophe

Richard Bourne
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

Much of the literature on modern Africa makes the unhappy comparison between hopes, especially upon independence, and reality. In Zimbabwe that link r…

Philip Oltermann, "Keeping Up With the Germans: A History of Anglo-German Encounters" (Faber and Faber, 2012)

April 2, 2012

Keeping Up With the Germans

Philip Oltermann
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

Few people are in a better position to assess different countries and cultures than those caught between them. So it is with Philip Oltermann: a Germa…

Paul Watson, "Up Pohnpei: A Quest to Reclaim the Soul of Football by Leading the World's Ultimate Underdogs to Glory" (Profile Books, 2012)

March 29, 2012

Up Pohnpei

Paul Watson
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

Coming to terms with the limitations of our own sporting achievement is one of the hardest things many of us have to do in life. A couple of years ago…

David Edgerton, "Britain's War Machine: Weapons, Resources and Experts in the Second World War" (Oxford UP, 2011)

March 22, 2012

Britain's War Machine

David Edgerton
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

My grandfather joined up when the Second World War broke out, but he was soon returned to civvy street as he was much more valuable employing his mech…

Robert Holland, "Blue Water Empire: the British in the Mediterranean since 1800" (Penguin, 2012)

February 21, 2012

Blue Water Empire

Robert Holland
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

I have always found something distinctly 'un-British' about the Mediterranean. I grew up thinking of the British empire - and British spirit - as bein…

Simon Winder, "Germania: In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History" (FSG, 2011)

January 24, 2012

Germania

Simon Winder
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

When I was fourteen I was faced with a difficult choice. I was dreadful at languages but knew that I had another two years of brain-aching pain ahead …

Andrew Wilson, "Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship" (Yale UP, 2011)

December 2, 2011

Belarus

Andrew Wilson
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

A couple of weeks ago I took a bus from Warsaw and travelled east across the River Bug. The border took a long time to cross, but then this was no ord…

Elizabeth Gowing, "Travels in Blood and Honey: Becoming a Beekeeper in Kosovo" (Signal Books, 2021)

October 25, 2011

Travels in Blood and Honey

Elizabeth Gowing
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

The hardest part of living in a foreign land is crossing that invisible divide between being an outsider and getting to know a country properly. An ol…

Richard Hamilton, "The Last Storytellers: Tales from the Heart of Morocco" (I. B. Taurus, 2011)

September 9, 2011

The Last Storytellers

Richard Hamilton
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

Few places can match the Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech for spectacle. As the shadows lengthen and dusk approaches, the square seethes with snake charmers…

Steve Bloomfield, "Africa United: How Football Explains Africa" (Canongate Books, 2010)

August 23, 2011

Africa United

Steve Bloomfield
Hosted by Nicholas Walton

A couple of days ago I had an unusual experience. I was staying in a hotel in Kampala, with a stunning view of the southern reaches of the Ugandan cap…