England: The Autobiography

Apr 16, 2025 11:50 PM

Author:John Lewis-Stempel

DISCOVER 2,000 YEARS OF ENGLISH HISTORY TOLD BY THOSE WHO LIVED IT - FROM BOUDICCA'S REVOLT TO THE ASHES WIN OF 2005.

Featuring writing from Julius Caesar, Guy Fawkes, Isaac Newton, Charlotte Brontë, Winston Churchill and Jonny Wilkinson.

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Engine of Industrial Revolution, global empire, England's history is one of the most fascinating and influential the world has ever known. England: The Autobiography tells that history first-hand, through the words of those who saw it and those who made it.

All the great events of the last 2,000 years are here: the Norman Conquest, Magna Carta, Henry VIII's break with Rome, the Great Fire of London, two world wars. And alongside them are events that capture the nation's social history and those that shaped the nature of 'Englishness', such as the Black Death, theatregoing in Elizabethan London, the Beatles and the 1966 World Cup.

This book is an intimate, vivid and revealing portrait of England and the English - and the unique place of both in world history.

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'What does it mean to be English? Lewis-Stempel gives us a clue with this superb collection . . . A triumph' Saul David

Reviews

This is a ground-breaking book, richly nuanced with titbits of information, insight and understanding

—— Frances Spalding , The Daily Mail

Remarkably perceptive and well-researched ... Virginia Nicholson has produced another extraordinarily interesting work, sensitive, intelligent and well-written

—— Selina Hastings , The Sunday Telegraph

This in an inspiring book, lovingly researched, well-written and humane... the period is beautifully caught

—— The Economist

Brave, humane and honest

—— Hilary Spurling , The Observer

This is a book you are bound to enjoy. The set pieces - the naval review of June 1897, the Jameson Raid, The Kaiser's visit to Windsor, Winston Churchill visiting the fleet, "the spring of the panther" - are dramatically recreated. The pen portraits of the political and naval establishments of Wilhelmine Germany and Victorian and Edwardian Britain are brilliantly evoked with a sharp eye for the memorable detail...Massie keeps his complex story under tight control...Monographers like myself can only envy the sheer sweep of Dreadnought and the author's rich palette of colours so deftly applied. Like Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August this is narrative history at its very best. Financial Times

—— Financial Times

The pleasure of this book for me, in addition to such stimulating details, is that the Holy Roman Empire on the cusp of the 17th century is terra incognita, to be approached with a fresh eye... Rudoph's tolerance deserves a wider audience in our fractious age

—— Chris Frew , Scotland on Sunday

A very readable history... Marshall rightly argues, as an enabler of scientific, artistic and mystical insight, Rudolf has no peer

—— Gary Lachman , Independent on Sunday

It was a magical moment in the history of Western civilization, when anything was possible. Mr Marshall brings it all wonderfully to life

—— Stuart Ferguson , Wall Street Journal

An entertaining description of life at the heart of a Europe stained by the clash of new and old ideas... an enjoyable description of what was an extraordinary epoch

—— Greg Neale , BBC History Magazine

An insightful and perceptive record of a city that revolutionised culture and science

—— Prediction

Fascinating

—— David V Barrett , Independent

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