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Empire
Empire
Sep 22, 2024 7:34 PM

Author:Niall Ferguson,Jonathan Keeble

Empire

Penguin presents the unabridged audiobook edition of Empire by Niall Ferguson, read by Jonathan Keeble.

Once vast swathes of the globe were coloured imperial red and Britannia ruled not just the waves, but the prairies of America, the plains of Asia, the jungles of Africa and the deserts of Arabia. Just how did a small, rainy island in the North Atlantic achieve all this? And why did the empire on which the sun literally never set finally decline and fall? Niall Ferguson's acclaimed Empire brilliantly unfolds the imperial story in all its splendours and its miseries, showing how a gang of buccaneers and gold-diggers planted the seed of the biggest empire in all history - and set the world on the road to modernity.

'The most brilliant British historian of his generation ... Ferguson examines the roles of "pirates, planters, missionaries, mandarins, bankers and bankrupts" in the creation of history's largest empire ... he writes with splendid panache ... and a seemingly effortless, debonair wit' Andrew Roberts

'Dazzling ... wonderfully readable' New York Review of Books

'A remarkably readable précis of the whole British imperial story - triumphs, deceits, decencies, kindnesses, cruelties and all' Jan Morris

'Empire is a pleasure to read and brims with insights and intelligence' Sunday Times

Reviews

A beautiful, extraordinary book . . . Tuchman at the top of her powers . . . She has done nothing finer

—— Wall Street Journal

Wise, witty, and wonderful . . . a great book, in a great historical tradition

—— Commentary

Beautifully written, careful and thorough in its scholarship . . . What Ms. Tuchman does superbly is to tell how it was. . . . No one has ever done this better

—— New York Review of Books

Powerful . . . extraordinary

—— Irish Times

Brought to life with family photographs and diary entries that add further impact to Lien's harrowing memories and testimony - this deeply affecting and fascinating story is guaranteed to haunt you

—— Sunday Mirror

Remarkable - the story of one traumatic childhood, deeply moving, and told with great dexterity, allowing the wisdoms of today to run parallel with the absorbing narrative of wartime events

—— Penelope Lively

Compassionate and thoughtfully rendered, the book is both a memorable portrait of a remarkable woman and a testament to the healing power of understanding. A complex and uplifting tale

—— Kirkus

A nuanced, moving, and unusual "hidden child" account

—— Publishers Weekly

Superb. This is a necessary book - painful, harrowing, tragic, but also uplifting

—— The Times Book of the Week

Fascinating, beautifully written. Van Es carefully salvages Lien's story and creates a deeply moving and complex book about war, atrocity and human suffering

—— The Oldie

Sensational and gripping . . . shedding light on some of the most urgent issues of our time

—— Judges of the Costa Book of the Year Prize 2018

Luminous, elegant, haunting - I read it straight through

—— Philippe Sands, Author of East West Street

Deeply moving. Writes with an almost Sebaldian simplicity and understatement

—— Guardian

Harrowing and beautiful

—— Bookseller

An awe-inspiring account of the tragedies and triumphs within the world of the Holocaust's "hide-away" children, and of the families who sheltered them

—— Georgia Hunter, author of We Were the Lucky Ones

The Cut Out Girl is a reminder of the extraordinary richness of archives and the treasures released by scholarly research

—— TLS

An extraordinary story, harrowing, deeply affecting. This fascinating story is guaranteed to haunt you

—— People

A moving story of personal and family history, with a scholar's objective eye for the bigger picture.

—— Irish Times

Harrowing . . . profoundly moving

—— Daily Express

Satisfyingly detailed, yet with a convincing overarching thesis.

—— Books of the Year , History Today

[Heffer] has really excelled himself with this epic study of Britain in the years before the First World War. Majestic in its scope, meticulous in its scholarship, compelling in its thesis and stylish in its prose, his heavyweight book challenges the familiar historical tale of confidence and swagger and presents the age in a more complex, sombre light . . . The author has done an extraordinary amount of research, unearthing a wealth of new material from archives. . . . It is impossible to read this magnificent work without gaining a deep new understanding of a unique and troubled age.

—— Daily Express

[One of] the best historical books to gift others this Christmas.

—— Daily Mail

Heffer has turned himself into one of Britain’s most accomplished and formidable men of letters . . . Heffer is a genuine intellectual with a shelf of books to his credit.

—— Peter Oborne , Spectator

An epic survey . . . Simon Heffer’s intricately detailed account ends with Britain diminished and on the brink of catastrophe.

—— Jane Shilling, ‘Must Reads’ , Daily Mail

London's Big Read wants to get the capital talking about [Brit(ish)] ... a personal and provocative exploration of British history, race, identity and belonging.

—— Jessie Thompson , Evening Standard

Afua Hirsch's new book uses the personal and political to take a good look at what it's like to be a person of colour here, now. Here's where you'll get an insight into what it means to be a mixed race and univocally British, yet continuously plagued with the question 'but where are you really from?'

—— Jazmin Kopotsha , Debrief

An excellent read.

—— Stephen Bush , Telegraph

[A] personal and admirably honest account of her journey towards self-realisation as a woman of colour.

—— Camden New Journal

A fascinating...deeply intelligent, witty and often moving exploration of race in modern Britain

—— Samira Ahmed , Mail on Sunday

Afua Hirsch's first book, Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, was published to wide acclaim at the start of 2018. She looks at the many, multi-faceted questions that surround identity - both on a personal and societal scale - to pen a thought-provoking read.

—— Katie Berrington , Vogue

It is a life-shaping read.

—— Chine McDonald , Church Times, **Readers' Books of the Year**

Brit(ish) stands out from a crop of books on growing up mixed race in 70s Britain.

—— Gaby Hinsliff , Guardian, **Books of the Year**

Brit(ish) is an essential read for all. Hirsch's exploration of her identity brings to light the difficulties of growing up as mixed-race and black in Britain. She also challenges the British perception of race, and how our inability to confront our past has profoundly affected our ability to coherently understand and discuss race in our present. Brit(ish) is a call to action, if we genuinely want to progress as a society, we must change our discussions and understanding of race.

—— Louisa Hanton , Palantinate

A personal, political and challenging account of what it means to be British when you are racialised as Black. Hirsch is a brilliant and fearless intellect who deftly handles the complexity of the issues

—— Bernadine Evaristo, author of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER , Guardian
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