The past is a foreign country in more ways than one for the protagonists of Douglas Kennedy's novel. Largely set in Cold War Berlin, this hard-hitting love story tears down the dividing walls between past and present, showing how the course of history can turn in an instant. An author of consistently engaging and clever bestsellers, Kennedy has ranged from Stateside dramas to noirish thrillers. The Moment pulls together both strains in his fiction, marrying romantic tragedy with Le Carré-style espionage.

1. Which actress made her film debut in Julia (1977)?

A walking tour isn't just a great way to see Berlin, it's also a capital way to learn about its history

Fifty years after construction began on the barrier that defined the Cold War, Germans are looking back with mixed feelings on the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall. Tony Paterson reports

Exactly half a century has passed since construction began on the Berlin Wall, a symbolic reminder of Germany’s troubled past.

Hansjoachim Tiedge's defection to East Germany in 1985 caused panic and dismay in West Germany and Nato. The head of West Germany's counter-intelligence department, he was soon divulging all to the Stasi spy chief Markus Wolf.

Detlef Girrmann helped over 500 people to escape from East Berlin after the Wall went up in August 1961. He and his colleagues used everything from false passes, borrowed IDs and tunnels. The Stasi declared him public enemy No 1.

Far-right groups are hoping to win votes by blending in with mainstream society – but they are still clinging to the hate crimes. Tony Paterson reports in Berlin

Economic outlook: The European Central Bank is against a default or any choreographed restructuring

Stasi chief held file revealing East German premier's Nazi links

We mustn't laugh but – to paraphrase the Foreign Secretary – you have to laugh.

It takes a lot to shock John Humphrys. But when Justin Webb, his co-host on the Today programme, revealed that he was the secret love child of the Welshman's old BBC colleague, the newsreader Peter Woods, even Humphrys was taken aback.

Prince Harry visited the Brandenurg Gate and the Berlin Wall memorial yesterday, laying a wreath to those killed trying to escape from East Germany between 1967 and 1989. The visit followed the Prince's appearance on German television's largest charity benefit, Ein Herz für Kinder (A Heart for Children), on Saturday.

Gerhard Beil appeared to be as calm as he sat, with two others, at the historic press conference on 9 November 1989 at which their senior colleague, Günter Schabowski, answered a question about when the Berlin Wall and the GDR's frontiers would be opened.