Jonathan Dimbleby talks to Chris Patten

Author, historian and broadcast journalist Jonathan Dimbleby discusses an updated version of his seminal book The Palestinians and his view that there can be no lasting peace without a solution to the human tragedy of a people without a land. And he considers the worrying changes to the post-world order and their implications for all of us.

The Palestinians was published in 1979 and described the history of Palestinian Arabs and Zionist Jews from the break-up of the Ottoman Empire up to the time of publication. In a new introduction to the book, Dimbleby brings the story up to date including the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, the war in Gaza and allegations of breaches of the Geneva Convention and even of genocide. Dimbleby will give his thoughts on the latest situation in Isreal and Gaza. He will also look back to the lessons of World War II and the creation of an established world order. What are the implications of a changing world order in which international rules, laws and institutions are being ignored?

Dimbleby is a highly acclaimed broadcaster and historian of World War II. He has presented many high-profile programmes and documentaries on mainstream television, including On the Record on the BBC and Jonathan Dimbleby on ITV. He anchored ITV’s general election coverage in 1997, 2001 and 2005. His many other books include his most recent, Endgame 1944: How Stalin Won the War, The Battle of the Atlantic, Destiny in the Desert: The Road to El Alamein and The Last Governor: Chris Patten and the Handover of Hong Kong.

Dimbleby appears at the invitation of Lord Chris Patten for his annual Free Speech Conversation. Patten is a former chairman of the Conservative Party, former European commissioner, former governor of Hong Kong and former chancellor of the University of Oxford. He invites a new guest each year to talk about a subject from the perspective of freedom of speech.

The speaker at the first free speech conversation in 2025 was contemporary historian and Europe expert Professor Timothy Garton Ash.