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The Dutch journalist Geert Mak travels through Europe at the close of the twentieth century reflecting on the history of the last 100 years and it's legacy. Nicholas Farrell reads.

As the new millennium was about to dawn Geert Mak was commissioned by the newspaper he worked for to write a series of articles assessing the shape Europe was in and the legacy left behind by the twentieth century's turbulent history. Mak travelled back and forth all over the continent, painting a lively and engaging portrait of the places he visited and the people he encountered who shared their stories with him. Book of the Week begins with Mak setting off from Amsterdam for Paris where he finds the remnants of the spectacular World's Fair held there in 1900. Then he follows in the footsteps of Lenin as he made his fateful journey from Zurich to Petrograd, via Stockholm and Helsinki in 1917. He contrasts the Bolshevik leader's fiery politics with the more measured route taken by the Scandinavians. Then on to Odessa and Istanbul where traces of acceptance and tolerance are found amid the worst excesses of tyranny. Finally, to Moscow where he meets the Russian cosmonaut, Anatoli Artsybarski who recalls orbiting the Earth as the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991. A new piece by Geert Mak specially written for Book of the Week updates his reflections twenty years on.

Abridged by Rowan Routh
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.