Stepping Off the Map is one of the hidden stories of the Cold War. Four years after the building of the Berlin Wall, a group of young British men and women crossed through the Iron Curtain. Their mission was to help rebuild a war bombed hospital in Dresden, East Germany. The project was organised by a man with a vision, the then Provost of Coventry Cathedral. In this account of a unique event in Cold War history, some of those who took part recall their experiences and reveal how they were unwittingly caught up in a secret political strategy aimed at maintaining peace in Europe.

Edited by Merrilyn Thomas, Cold War historian and honorary research fellow at University College London.

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“The opportunity for a small group of young people to peep behind the Curtain, and encounter profound difference is recorded beautifully in these memoirs which offer an insight not just into a political system, but into our human experience of growing up, of relationship, and of looking back. … You will find here not just political observation, but personal, philosophical, and theological reflection. You will also find humour and a healthy dose of an anarchic tendency. You will find profound reflections on the nature of freedom, and how different it looks on either side of our preconceptions. Perhaps above all, it’s a story of the creation of deep and abiding friendships that deserves to be told.”

The Very Reverend John Witcombe, Dean of Coventry Cathedral

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