The Lines We Draw

A moving, deeply empathetic memoir about Jewish family and history, which encourages us all to confront the lines we draw.

As a Jewish journalist covering the Middle East, Tim Franks has over the years been accused of being both a self-hating Jew and an Islamophobe. He always tried to draw a clear line between his identity and his work. Up to the point that he asked himself: is that necessary? Is it such a combustible mix? They were questions he struggled to answer. To begin with, he was a Jew without much of a back-story.

So he set out on a journey for his ancestral roots, one which took him from Constantinople to Curacao, from Auschwitz to Lithuania to Downing Street. Along the way he challenged how he saw not just himself but the world. This is a moving, deeply empathetic memoir, which encourages us all to confront the lines we draw.

TIM FRANKS presents Newshour on the BBC World Service, with a global audience of millions. He was previously a BBC reporter for almost two decades, including nine years as an award-winning foreign correspondent. He has covered several major conflicts. And spent two years as the BBC's least likely sports correspondent.