Our Times, A. N. Wilson
Our Times, A. N. Wilson
List: $27.95 | Sale: $19.57
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Our Times
The Age of Elizabeth II

Author: A. N. Wilson

Narrator: Geoffrey Howard

Unabridged: 18 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/05/2010

Synopsis

When Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953, few could have any inkling of the stupendous changes that were going to take place in Britain and around the world. In this third book of his acclaimed histories, A. N. Wilson paints a panoramic portrait of the development of modern Britain. He begins in the 1950s with the Suez crisis, immigration, the Angry Young Men and Harold Macmillan, and takes us through the vast cultural changes and pop fashions of the 1960s. He continues through the 1970s, with Vietnam and the Cold War looming large and the Labour government that ushered in the Winter of Discontent. The collapse of the Soviet Union in the ’80s signaled the end of a political era in Britain, leading up to the current period of unprecedented peace and prosperity.

About A. N. Wilson

A. N. Wilson is a renowned British journalist and author. He has written several acclaimed biographies, including Tolstoy, C. S. Lewis, Jesus, and Paul. He taught for seven years at Oxford before becoming a journalist. He has won numerous awards, including the E. M. Forster Award, the Whitbread Biography Award, and the Somerset Maugham Award. A frequent contributor to the Daily Mail, Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, Spectator, and Observer, he lives in London.

About Geoffrey Howard

Geoffrey Howard (a.k.a. Ralph Cosham) (1936–2014) was a British journalist who changed careers to become a narrator and screen and stage actor. He performed in more than one hundred professional theatrical roles. His audiobook narrations were named “Audio Best of the Year” by Publishers Weekly, and he won seven AudioFile Earphones Awards, and in 2013 he won the coveted Audie Award for Best Mystery Narration for his reading of Louise Penny’s The Beautiful Mystery.

Reviews

Goodreads review by David Bisset

Compulsive reading! Andrew Wilson's views are not always mine, but he is never dull. This is not an academic survey of the period, but it is illuminated by the author's wit and intelligence. Not a perfect end to his trilogy, but a gallant endeavour.......more

Goodreads review by Stephen

It’s dense book, as it needs to be given how much A N Wilson crams into it. This is ANW’s take on the changes which have occurred in British society over the period he calls “Our Times” – the reign of Elizabeth II. The change he mourns is the loss of Englishness as it used to be, the loss of Britann......more

Goodreads review by Ron

What a mind Mr Wilson has! Such superb and informative writing! If you want to learn that Harold MacMillan was cuckolded by Lord Bob Boothby, who carried on a long-term affair with McMillan's wife Dorothy; the facts behind the Profumo affair and the disgraceful treatment of Stephen Ward; mods and ro......more

Goodreads review by Gregory

Mixed Feelings - Very Readable but Somehow Unsatisfying I enjoyed reading this book - but I finished it thinking that it did not quite fulfill my expectations. It is well written and seems well researched (although I read that Wikipedia was one of the sources) and quite comprehensive, but it felt lik......more

Goodreads review by Neal Smith

An iconoclastic gallop through post war Britain. Willson enjoys himself laying into targets right, left and centre. Very few of the major protagonists come out well with the exception of Margaret Thatcher and, perhaps more surprisingly, John Major. Wilson prefers the Rolling Stones and Dylan over th......more

Quotes

“A piquant refraction of an era of enormous change…The enthusiasms expressed in Our Times are enjoyable to encounter, but it is Mr. Wilson’s wicked wit that carries the reader along.”  Wall Street Journal

“A very funny, extremely opinionated, always provocative and often thoughtful read…Wilson is endlessly entertaining.” Observer (London)

“One of the most important books of recent years.” Daily Mail (London) 

“Although ‘the second Elizabethan era’ has been a period in which the majority of the British basked in comfort, security, and luxury, it is also the reign in which Britain effectively stopped being British, contends the opinionated and entertaining Wilson…Delightfully sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, and always controversial and ironic, Wilson takes no prisoners.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Wilson produces a history that even those not familiar with Great Britain will find fascinating.” Library Journal

“[Our Times] shows the author as a deeply committed watcher of our time, offering even American readers a great deal to ruminate over. By turns sardonic, rueful, engaging and cantankerous.” Kirkus Reviews

“A masterpiece of popular history.” Frank McLynn, British historian and critically acclaimed biographer

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