Little Englanders

The Edwardians have long been the lost decade of British history, yet they are that history at its climax. Alwyn Turner sets the record straight, bringing its characters, strains and stresses brilliantly to life -- Simon Jenkins In Alwyn Turner's Little Englanders, Britain's most electrifying contemporary social historian conjures the forgotten country of more than a century ago, complete with terrorist suffragettes, music hall cross-dressers and alarming new technologies, to reveal a strikingly foreign world which nonetheless holds up a dusty mirror to our own. A magnificent triumph over cultural amnesia, brimming with insight and impossible to put down. Fiercely recommended -- Alan Moore Alwyn Turner is a wonderful raconteur of historical eras. He has a sense for character, and story, and bizarre anecdote, that makes an epoch come alive and makes you feel, at times, that you're living in Edwardian times, albeit with much better food. This is history written from below, and above, and all milieus in between -- Simon Kuper, author * Chums * Every page grips and delights as Alwyn Turner presents a deeply researched yet gorgeously entertaining double vision of something now almost fantastical - a United Kingdom in full Imperial glory - yet unnervingly familiar -- James Hawes, author * The Shortest History of England * A wonderful and rollicking account of the popular culture of Edwardian Britain, based on a massive amount of reading of the popular literature of the period. It is as entertaining as it is perceptive -- Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Government, Kings College London, and author * The Strange Survival of Liberal Britain * Praise for Alwyn Turner -- : Hugely engaging ... Turner's genius lies in finding the odd little stories that get under the nation's skin and reveal what people were really thinking ... He writes with a tremendous sense of fun. -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times * Alwyn Turner is a master of the telling detail ... ravenously inquisitive, darkly comical and coolly undeceived -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday * Turner writes with great fluidity, his tone underpinned by a prevailing sense of irony: even the footnotes are enjoyable * TLS * Turner's seductive blend of political analysis, social reportage and cultural immersion puts him wonderfully at ease with his readers -- David Kynaston