'Cruel Britannia: A History of Torture' with Ian Cobain

Our understanding of history is dependent upon our ability to access historical records. What happens when those records are suppressed or destroyed? What happens when new records challenge accepted histories? Our entire identify as a nation may be challenged. We’re now familiar with ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ such as waterboarding used by the CIA and seen in Jason Bourne films. But did you know such techniques were first developed by the British during the Second World War?

Award-winning investigative journalist Ian Cobain has spent years reporting and digging into archives to investigate British interrogation techniques across the decades: from the Second World War and post colonialism to Northern Ireland and the War on Terror. He’ll be talking to Heather Brooke about how this investigation challenged his most precious beliefs about what it means to be British. Cobain has been a journalist for 30 years and is currently an investigative reporter with the Guardian. His inquiries into the UK’s counter-terrorism practices since 9/11 have won a number of major awards, including the Martha Gellhorn Prize and the Paul Foot Award for investigative journalism. He has also won a number of Amnesty International media awards, and his book, Cruel Britannia, was named Debut Political Book of the Year in this year’s Political Book Awards.

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