Books
by Alwyn Turner
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A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between the Wars |
A highly readable portrait of Britain in the inter war years. The politics - Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay Macdonald, Oswald Moseley, General Strike, and Ireland included - are covered but it is the social and cultural developments that are the main appeal. An age starting with Marie Lloyd and ending with Henry Hall and Tommy Handley and taking in characters like George Formby and the extraordinary John Reith of the BBC cannot fail to entertain.
(Tony Pratt - bwl 120 Spring 2026) |
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Little Englanders: Britain in the Edwardian Era |
A brief period from the death of Victoria and the Boer War to the trouble in Ireland and the Great War with personalities such as Churchill, Lloyd George, and the Pankhursts. Turner does them justice but never presents them as the whole story. Politics played only a small part in life which included the music hall, a growing popular press, fraudsters, Elgar, P G Wodehouse and Conan Doyle. A still powerful Empire encouraged feelings of superiority but the new chauffeured car owners were outnumbered by those whom the first old aged pensioners saved from the workhouse. An entertaining read.
(Tony Pratt - bwl 116 Spring 2025) |
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