Jerry Brotton talks to Rana Mitter about the links between Elizabethan England and the Islamic World. They're joined in studio for a conversation about the history and growth of nationalism around the world by the Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, by Professor John Breuilly from the London School of Economics and by the novelist Gillian Slovo - who has written a thriller inspired by the Tottenham riots and a verbatim drama based on interviews asking why young Muslim men and women from across Western Europe are leaving their homes to answer the call of Jihad. This Orient Isle: Elizabethan England and the Islamic World by Jerry Brotton - Professor of Renaissance Studies in the Department of
English, Queen Mary, University of London is out now and is being read on Radio 4 as this week's Book of the Week.
The Radio 3 Sunday Feature he presented on The Venice Ghetto is available on the iPlayer or as a download from Radio 3's website. Another World: Losing Our Children to Islamic State written by Gillian Slovo and directed by Nicolas Kent is at the temporary space at the National Theatre from 9th April to 7th May.
Gillian Slovo's novel is called Ten Days. Professor John Breuilly is the editor of the Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism which is out in paperback in April. Elif Shafak's most recent novel is The Architect's Apprentice. Producer: Ruth Watts