Today is the centenary of the assassination of the Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo: not in itself the cause of WW1, but certainly the starting point for the series of events over the next month that led to the outbreak of war.
At moments like this it's good to turn to Alan Bennett who touched on this period in Forty Years On.
One of the characters in the play within the play is remembering the period before the war, and another debunks his memory:
"Tempest: ...One boat on the wan, listless waters of the lake and nothing stirring in Europe for years and years and years.
Hugh: That's not how it was. That's only how he thinks it was. Really it was wars and rumours of wars, jut like any other time."
Bizarre historical coincidence: my copy of the script is now just over forty years old.
At moments like this it's good to turn to Alan Bennett who touched on this period in Forty Years On.
One of the characters in the play within the play is remembering the period before the war, and another debunks his memory:
"Tempest: ...One boat on the wan, listless waters of the lake and nothing stirring in Europe for years and years and years.
Hugh: That's not how it was. That's only how he thinks it was. Really it was wars and rumours of wars, jut like any other time."
Bizarre historical coincidence: my copy of the script is now just over forty years old.
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