Category Archives: History

Lessons from Italy’s Mafia Republic

Posted on June 5, 2013 by samiraahmed

Every weekend when I was 10 years old, I had to write an English composition for homework. It was 1978 and drawing on the daily news on my TV screen for source material I wrote one  imagining I was the … Continue reading →

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How The West Was Fun: When Britain loved cowboys

Posted on April 5, 2013 by samiraahmed

The Unforgiven (1961) – The Searchers in reverse This is about the back ground to the April 6th documentary I made for Radio 4 about the Western in British culture. You can listen again here: Archive on Four documentary Riding … Continue reading →

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Mr Lincoln’s Wild Ride

Posted on February 11, 2013 by samiraahmed

I spent a night in the pub playing skittles recently with The Lawmen of Bristol for a radio documentary. They are Wild West enthusiasts, who transport around their home-made saloon town and re-enact historical gunfights for charity. Each has a … Continue reading →

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How The Middle East Became Another Planet

Posted on December 17, 2012 by samiraahmed

From Flash Gordon’s Ming the Merciless with his harem and his war rocket Ajax, to Frank Herbert’s prophecy-obsessed desert tribes in Dune battling over a valuable resource, the Middle East has always been another planet to western science fiction creators. … Continue reading →

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The Curse of the Typewriter

Posted on November 20, 2012 by samiraahmed

The last typewriter was made in Britain yesterday at a factory in Wales. But has the stigma of typing for women really been lost? This was originally written earlier this year to look at how far the QWERTY keyboard might … Continue reading →

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Brunel, Bristol and re-forging history

Posted on November 18, 2012 by samiraahmed

Confession. I have this big crush on Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Or rather, on Kenneth Branagh as IKB, with those sideburns and a stovepipe hat, quoting  Shakespeare at the Olympic opening ceremony; an engineering Renaissance man. Perhaps it played a subconscious … Continue reading →

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Broken clocks & zombie apocalypse

Posted on October 28, 2012 by samiraahmed

I have a thing about broken public clocks. I wrote a piece for The Big Issue about why I think they’re the first step on the way to social breakdown and chaos. Think Day of the Triffids when there’s no … Continue reading →

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Hacks on Film: Essential viewing and reading

Posted on October 3, 2012 by samiraahmed

This is an updated version of an article I first wrote for The Spectator blog, that formed the basis of a lecture to journalism students at Kingston University in October. It has links to scripts, films and articles about all … Continue reading →

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What the hell’s the Presidency for? Re-assessing LBJ

Posted on June 1, 2012 by samiraahmed

This is based on my interview with  author Robert Caro and fellow American writer, Michael Goldfarb for BBC Radio 3 Night Waves on June 6th. You can listen to the programme here. (last 18 minutes) Which US President won an election with the largest ever … Continue reading →

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