Talk by Tim Butcher in Stirling

Author and explorer Tim Butcher will be speaking at Stirling University’s Logie Lecture Theatre on Thursday 22^nd May.  He will talk about the story behind his new book The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin who Brought the World to War, the story of history’s most influential assassin: the man who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand and sparked the First World War.

Nearly 100 years after the outbreak of the First World War, former Balkan war correspondent Tim Butcher retraces the journey of Gavrilo Princip – the teenage assassin who killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, setting the war in motion – and illuminates our understanding of one of the most misrepresented figures in modern history and how his Bosnian homeland continues to impact global history.

Tim trekked across Bosnia and part of Serbia on the trail of Gavrilo Princip, making a number of discoveries missed by a century of historians.

This talk has been organised by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.

In a summer morning in Sarajevo a hundred years ago, a teenage assassin named Gavrilo Princip fired not just the opening shots of the First World War but the starting gun for modern history, when he killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Yet the events Princip triggered were so monumental that his own story has been largely overlooked.

Born a penniless backwoodsman, Princip's life changed when he trekked through Bosnia and Serbia to attend school. As he ventured across fault lines of faith, nationalism and empire, so tightly clustered in the Balkans, radicalisation slowly transformed him from a frail farm boy into an assassin.

By retracing Princip's journey from his highland birthplace, through the mythical valleys of Bosnia to the fortress city of Belgrade and ultimately Sarajevo, Tim Butcher illuminates our understanding both of Princip and the places that shaped him.

The talk takes place at 7:30pm on Thursday 22^nd May at Logie Lecture Theatre, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA. Tickets are £8 for adults, £5 for RSGS Members and £3 Students and will be available on the door.