Innovation, Peter Ackroyd
Innovation, Peter Ackroyd
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Innovation
The History of England from the Boer War to the Millennium Dome

Author: Peter Ackroyd

Narrator: Antony Ferguson

Unabridged: 19 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/28/2021


Synopsis

The sixth and final volume in Peter Ackroyd’s magnificent History of England series, from the Boer War to the Millenium Dome.Innovation brings Peter Ackroyd’s History of England to a triumphant close. Ackroyd takes readers from the end of the Boer War and the accession of Edward VII to the end of the twentieth century, when his great-granddaughter Elizabeth II had been on the throne for almost five decades.It was a century of enormous change, encompassing two world wars, four monarchs (Edward VII, George V, George VI, and the Queen), the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of the Labor Party, women’s suffrage, the birth of the NHS, the march of suburbia, and the clearance of the slums. It was a period that saw the work of the Bloomsbury Group and T.S. Eliot, of Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin, from the end of the postwar slump to the Technicolor explosion of the 1960s, to free love and punk rock, and from Thatcher to Blair.A vividly readable, richly peopled tour de force, Innovation is Peter Ackroyd writing at the height of his powers.

About Peter Ackroyd

Peter Ackroyd is an award-winning novelist, as well as a broadcaster, biographer, poet, and historian. He is the author of the acclaimed Thames: Sacred River, London: The Biography, and the first and second volumes of his history of England series, Foundation and Tudors. He holds a CBE award for services to literature.

About Antony Ferguson

AudioFile Earphones Award winner Antony Ferguson is a native of London, England. He is a classically trained actor and has appeared in numerous productions in London, Off-Broadway, and regional theater. As a voice actor, he has over fifty audiobooks to his credit and was recommended by the "All About Romance" Web site as one of the best male narrators at performing female characters. He lives in Los Angeles.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Randall

Gladstone was liberal, Disraeli was conservative. Sundays were now spent playing a sport rather than being in church. In 1851, 25% of the English were agricultural, by 1911, it was 5%. Half the food was now imported. Half the working classes were considered impoverished. In 1873, “all of England was......more

Goodreads review by Alicia

I have been hanging out for this last instalment of Peter Ackroyd's history series for a while now, and I have to say, I felt a little let down. I thought the delay must have been due to his waiting to see the outcome of Brexit, given that's a major milestone for Britain, but no. His history ends tw......more


Quotes

“A wide-ranging, elegant work of scholarship.” Library Journal

“Narrator Antony Ferguson has a voice that is crisp and clear. He is paired well with this audiobook because of his English accent and expressive tones…Passages about the Beatles and Teddy Boys are enjoyable due to Ferguson's clever delivery.” AudioFile

“Ackroyd is at his finest weaving together the cultural fabric of the nation, describing the ‘hungry thirties,’ the establishment of the postwar welfare state during an austere time, Britain’s uneasy rapport with Europe, and the triumph of British icons such as Twiggy, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana, and Harry Potter. Thorough, readable history by a seasoned researcher and author.” Kirkus Reviews