Podcasts

The Vintage Podcast: Writing the story of the Jews

The Jewish story is a history that is about, and for, all of us. Alex Clark speaks to Simon Schama about his new book Belonging, shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize.

Belonging is a magnificent cultural history that is abundantly alive with energy, character and colour. It spans centuries and continents; from the Jews’ expulsion from Spain in 1492, it navigates miracles and massacres, wandering, discrimination, harmony and tolerance; to the brink of the twentieth century and, it seems, a point of profound hope.

It tells the stories not just of rabbis and philosophers, but of a poetess in the ghetto of Venice; a boxer in Georgian England; a general in Ming China; an opera composer in nineteenth-century Germany. The story unfolds in Kerala and Mantua, the starlit hills of Galilee, the rivers of Colombia, the kitchens of Istanbul, the taverns of Ukraine and the mining camps of California. It sails in caravels, rides the stage coaches and the railways; trudges the dawn streets of London, hobbles along with the remnants of Napoleon’s ruined army.

In this episode of the Vintage Podcast, Simon talks about his writing process, and explains more about the book...

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