Sam Gwynne

Award-winning historian and journalist Sam Gwynne talks about the rise and fall of the world’s largest airship and about the love story between a British officer and a married Romanian princess at the heart of it.

The British airship R101 went down in flames in 1930. It has largely been forgotten despite causing more deaths than the later Hindenburg disaster. Gwynne says the R101 was in its day the largest airship to have flown and was part of a scheme to link by air far-flung parts of the British Empire. However, behind the hype about its engineering and technology, Gwynne says these hydrogen-filled airships were a dangerous and bad idea. He describes a story of dreams and ambitions that features characters such as Lord Christopher Thomson, the man who dreamed up the scheme and pushed R101 to destruction, and Princess Marthe Bibesco, a celebrated writer and socialite with whom he had a long affair.

Gwynne’s other books include New York Times bestsellers Rebel Yell and Empire of the Summer Moon. He has worked as bureau chief, national correspondent, and senior editor at Time and was executive editor at Texas Monthly.

Part of the festival’s programme of American literature and culture.