Three great non-fiction books were published in 2020 addressing the subject of what is a nation. Dive into the world of the Azecs, Greece or post-Soviet Russia.
1. Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation by Roderick Beaton (Allen Lane)
2. Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend (Oxford University Press)
- An extraordinary new history of the Aztecs
3. Putin’s People by Catherine Belton (William Collins)
- Inside a post-Soviet autocracy
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Black Sea Circuit
The legends of Jason and the Argonauts, Noah’s Ark and a tribe of fierce female warriors known as the Amazons all originate from the Black Sea. Gripped by curiosity, Simon and Chris fire up their twenty year old Volvo that looks, as rustic and weather-beaten as a Cold War tank and embark on a quest to drive full circle around this ancient body of water at the birthplace of civilisation.
In the shadow of rising tension in Ukraine, the brothers get up close and personal with the fascinating people who inhabit the six nations that surround these colourful shores. Living on the road like the nomadic horse bowmen who once ruled the steppe grasslands, they explore Crimea, the Caucasus region of southern Russia’s “Wild West”, the Georgian kingdom of Colchis, Turkey’s Pontic coast, the megacity of Istanbul and complete their journey in Romania at the outfall of the mighty River Danube.