From Our Own Correspondent

In the latest programme of the monthly series, Mishal Husain introduces dispatches from journalists and writers around the United Kingdom that reflect the range of contemporary life in the country. From politics to pastimes, from hallowed traditions to emerging trends, from the curious to the ridiculous, the programme presents a tableau of Britain today.

Pieces this month include reflections on the very young and the very old playing together, how people on Lewis in the Western Isles are remembering a century-old tragedy that affected all families there, the special attraction of North Yorkshire for Goths and why a carol service takes us down to Strawberry Field.*

* as "From Our Home Correspondent" is a topical programme, pieces are subject to change at short notice.

The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement has prompted some very different and very passionate reactions. Adam Fleming reveals how, after an agonising wait which included taking the draft agreement on holiday with him - twice, its publication this week almost brought him to tears.

In 1918 Poland regained its sovereignty after 123 years of occupation by Austria, Prussia and Russia. This year Poles celebrated its centenary with a state organised march through the capital, Warsaw, which an estimated quarter of a million people attended. The parade, and the headlines, were overshadowed by the government’s last-minute decision to march together with far-right groups. Adam Easton was in Warsaw marching among the nationalists and the patriots.

Kate Adie introduces this and other stories from correspondents around the world.

David Baillie is with NATO in Norway where some of the companies singing really takes the cake.

Humera Iqbal talks to a young Pakistani DJ who uses Electronic Dance Music to save traditional instruments from extinction.

Adam Jones finds out how the idea of moderation works in the land of excess

And Dany Mitzman is in Italy where the graffiti is surprisingly educational.

The risks some Indian women are prepared to take to try and have baby boys and how the battle to make them think again seems to be working. Sophie Cousins is in the state of Haryana where there are signs the gender imbalance is slowing improving.

Kate Adie introduces this and other stories from around the world.

Guy Hedgecoe explores why Spain still can’t decide what to do with the body of its former dictator General Franco, even as it prepares to celebrate 40 years since its transition to democracy.

Rebecca Ford tells the story of the last French soldier to die during World War One – but when exactly did he die?

Richard Dove takes a coach along the world’s longest sea-crossing bridge but fails to find much enthusiasm from his fellow passengers between the Chinese mainland, Hong King and Macau.

And Ash Bhardwaj has pizza with a rapper in a town called New York not far from the frontline in Eastern Ukraine.

Change is coming to South Africa, says Cyril Ramphosa, but we must be patient. As the President plots his next move, and investigations into allegations of corruption under his predecessor Jacob Zuma continue, Andrew Harding reflects on the very different fortunes of the two very different leaders.

Kate Adie introduces this and other stories from correspondents around the world.

Allis Moss is in Norway – one of the greenest countries in the world but also one of the richest in oil and gas.

Jai Jethwa investigates why so many Indian men, including his own father, have moustaches. From Bollywood stars to upper-caste martial warriors, this particular type of facial hair has long been associated with masculinity and power.

Jessica Bateman explores attempts to breathe new life into some of Greece’s increasingly empty villages.

And Tim Mansel meets a woman who once slapped the German Chancellor; it was 1968 and Beate Klarsfeld wanted to draw attention to Kurt-Georg Kiesinger’s Nazi past.

Keep America Great’ has replaced ‘Make America Great’ as the favoured slogan among some Donald Trump supporters. Ahead of the US mid-term elections, James Cook meets those who think the President is winning and can’t wait to vote for him again.

Kate Adie introduces this and other stories from around the world.

In Mexico, Will Grant has been traveling with the caravan made up of the thousands of Central American migrants hoping to reach the US.

From Damascus, Diana Darke reflects on what her own family’s experience after World War One reveals about what life might be like in Syria when the conflict there finally ends.

John Murphy is in Tunisia, once held up as one of the Arab Springs greatest successes but where people now have little to celebrate.

And Pip Stewart reveals why a flesh-eating parasite from Guyana has made a quiet mark on her.

Recruiting more female peacekeepers is seen as essential to defeating jihadists groups in the Sahel, but the UN's Mali mission is the deadliest active peacekeeping deployment in the world. Jennifer O’Mahony met some of the women trying to bring stability to the region - as well as fighting for equality within their own ranks.

Kate Adie introduces this and other stories from correspondents around the world.

Nichols Walton is in Genoa to find out how the Italian city is coping after a motorway bridge collapse killed more than forty people in August; “Genoa is wounded not stupid” one poster declares.

Olivia Acland travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo to meet Dr Denis Mukwege – a winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize and a man known to many simply as Dr. Miracle.

Mary Novakovich visits the recently reopened National Museum of Serbia, which was shut for 15 years, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, which remained closed for 10 years. Was it worth the wait?

And from a cemetery in Chennai, Southern India, Andrew Whitehead has an unexpected tale of life in the Indian empire.

Kate Adie introduces stories from around the world.

Saudi Arabia's investment conference put on quite a show - and unlike many foreign investors scared off by the aftershocks of Jamal Khashoggi's death, Sebastian Usher was there to see it for himself.

Lyse Doucet was in Afghanistan to cover its parliamentary elections, and found many changes to the streetscape in Kabul - as the city survives a rising tide of attacks. Airport security measures provided clues of their own to the way life is changing.

Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, was sometimes hyped as the "next Dubai" in the 2000s - but Samira Shackle found that many of its building sites, supposed to give rise to four-star opulence, are now abandoned shells occupied by internally displaced people who fled the advance of the so-called Islamic State.

Tequila? No, mezcal - a smoother, smokier, and arguably more authentically Mexican product. Graeme Green takes a tipple or two in the state of Oaxaca, to hear how its aficionados and producers are torn between excitement and apprehension as their drink grows more famous abroad.

And BANG goes the auctioneer's whalebone hammer at the Hotel Druot, a storied Paris auction house which sells everything from randomly-baled belongings from house clearances to great works of art. Hugh Schofield went along ... and picked up a thing or two.

Kate Adie introduces analysis, wit and experiences from correspondents around the world.

The past weekend's elections in Afghanistan were held under threat, and only patchily - but they were held, despite fears to the contrary. Secunder Kermani talked to plenty of young voters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and heard both impatience and hope for the country's future in their answers.

Serbia has a domestic violence problem - as well as uncounted stockpiles of firearms in private hands. As the government brings in measures to try and discourage abuse in relationships, Nicola Kelly hears about the lethal risks of abusers with their own guns.

Tim Smith tags along with a group of dissenters on a night-time raid: they're Catalans who are strongly against the idea of Catalonian independence, and claim they're "cleaning up" the streetscape in some small towns by tearing down or removing symbols of the Catalan nationalist cause.

In the ritzier parts of Jakarta, you can almost smell the money these days, says Rebecca Henschke. As a rising class rides the commodities boom, children's parties in particular have become ever more ostentatious.

And Joe Bond gets into the swim of things in the Czech town of Kolin. Once it was home to a thriving Jewish population, which was largely uprooted and dispersed after the Nazi occupation deported most of its members to labour and extermination camps during the Holocaust. One doughty survivor of that era, Hana Greenfield, made it her later life's mission to tell others about it - and she's now commemorated in the town with a race down the river where she would swim as a child.

In the latest programme of the monthly series, Mishal Husain introduces dispatches from journalists and writers around the United Kingdom.

Producer: Simon Coates