Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

Thanks for downloading the In Our Time Podcast.

For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK

forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy the program.

Hello in 1903 an Englishman called Charles Carruthers went sailing in the North Sea and stumbled on a German military plot.

The cunning plan was to invade the British hours from the Frisian islands using special barges.

The Plucky Caruthers foiled the plot and then returned to his sailing

holiday. This isn't history but fiction, an immensely popular book called Riddle of the

Sands. It was a prescient vision of two nations soon to fight the First World War, but it went against the

spirit of a previous century. The British and the Germans had fought together at

Waterloo in 1815 and had influenced profoundly each other's thought and art. They even shared a royal family.

Yet somehow, Victor at Waterloo and the shared glories of romanticism became a mutual tragedy

of the Somme. With me to discuss the highs and lows of British Sherman relations across the 19th century

are Tim Blanning, Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge, Rosemary Ashton,

Kwanet Professor, Kain Professor of English Language and Literature

at University of College London,

and Richard Evans, Professor of Modern History

...