The Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated 28th June. On 28th July Austria-Hungary responded by declaring war on Serbia and firing at the Kalamegdan Castle. These shots from the far bank of the river Sava were the opening salvoes of the Great War.

In the summer of 1973 four of us. Three students and a London teacher, drove fro Istanbul to London. Arriving in Belgrade we were struck by its grey dullness and the the climate of a police state. Today it could hardly be more different: a lively society, clubs for youth, buildings restored and a renewal of the city's religious life. Communism and Milosovic's nationalism are firmly inthe past.