VE Day: Eighty Years On with Antony Beevor and Anita Anand

This event, originally titled ‘VE Day Eighty Years On: Antony Beevor with Anita Anand’, took place on 8 May 2025. The information below is correct as of the publication date.

One of our leading historians explores the end of the Second World War in Europe and what happened next.

On 8 May 1945 the Second World War in Europe ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany. Fascist expansionism had been defeated, but at a vast cost in lives and destruction. As the reality dawned, there was nonetheless a huge outpouring of relief. In due course, thoughts turned to the possibility of a new type of peace, bolstered by international cooperation, humane institutions and collective growth. The global extent of the conflict brought world history together for the first time. It accelerated the collapse of colonialism in Asia and Africa, but also saw Stalin choose domination over liberation in Central Europe and the Balkans, instigating the Cold War.

One of our most acclaimed historians of the twentieth century, Antony Beevor, looks at the moment of VE day in Europe and Britain. What did the idea of survival and ‘victory’ mean both in May 1945 and in the years that followed? What sort of modern world emerged, and how does this moment in history continue to shape our society and psyche today?

Antony Beevor is joined in conversation with broadcaster, author and Empire podcast co-host Anita Anand.

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Speaker Bios:

Antony Beevor is the author of 13 works of nonfiction, including Crete: The Battle and the Resistance (1991), which was awarded a Runciman Prize; Stalingrad (1998), which won the first Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature; and D-Day: The Battle for Normandy (2009), which received the Prix Henry Malherbe in France and the Westminster Medal from the Royal United Services Institute, and was a No 1 Bestseller in seven countries. His most recent work is the 2023 Sunday Times bestseller Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921. Educated at Sandhurst, Beevor served as regular officer with the 11th Hussars, leaving the Army after five years to write.

Anita Anand is and award-winning journalist, acclaimed author, and co-host of the globally renowned 'Empire' podcast, with over 40 million downloads. Her radio career includes Any Answers on BBC Radio 4, Drive, Doubletake and the Anita Anand Show, Saturday Live, The Westminster Hour, Beyond Westminster, Midweek and Woman's Hour on Radio 4. On BBC television she has presented The Daily Politics, The Sunday Politics and Newsnight. She is the author of Sophia: Princess Suffragette, Revolutionary and The Patient Assassin, which won the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for 2020 and co-author of Kohinoor: The Story of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond.

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