Download or read book A History of Britain in Just a Minute written by Gyles Brandreth and published by Random House. This book was released on 2022-09-22 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of us - without hesitation, repetition or deviation. Join national treasure and Just a Minute regular Gyles Brandreth on a hilariously addictive romp through British history. This isn't just another history book - there's a catch! From Stonehenge and Boudicca to Megxit and Brexit, each topic is written in 60-second installments, without hesitation, repetition, or deviation. A History of Britain in Just a Minute celebrates key moments, people and places from our past: kings and queens, heroes and villains, triumphs and disasters, inventions and events, battles and bonnets, art, science, literature, entertainment, sport, gossip, and more. Some entries are uninterrupted minutes, while others feature challenges for repetition and even, er...hesitation. You'll even find other Just a Minute panellists occasionally grabbing the pen to regale us with their witty takes on history. You've never heard the history of Britain told quite like this. You'll enjoy every uproarious minute of it.

Download or read book The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes written by Gyles Brandreth and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-08 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the ultimate anthology of theatrical anecdotes, edited by lifelong theatre-lover Gyles Brandreth in the Oxford tradition, and covering every kind of theatrical story and experience from the age of Shakespeare and Marlowe to the age of Stoppard and Mamet, from Richard Burbage to Richard Briers, from Nell Gwynn to Daniel Day-Lewis, from Sarah Bernhardt to Judi Dench. Players, playwrights, prompters, producers—they all feature. The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes provides a comprehensive, revealing, and hugely entertaining portrait of the world of theatre across four hundred years. Many of the anecdotes are humorous: all have something pertinent and illuminating to say about an aspect of theatrical life—whether it is the art of playwriting, the craft of covering up missed cues, the drama of the First Night, the nightmare of touring, or the secret ingredients of star quality. Edmund Kean, Henry Irving, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Ellen Terry, Edith Evans, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren—the great 'names' are all here, of course, but there are tales of the unexpected, too—and the unknown. This is a book—presented in five acts, with a suitably anecdotal and personal prologue from Gyles Brandreth—where, once in a while, the understudy takes centre-stage and Gyles Brandreth treats triumph and disaster just the same, including stories from the tattiest touring companies as well as from Broadway, the West End and theatres, large and small, in Australia, India, and across Europe.

Download or read book Britain and Europe in a Troubled World written by Vernon Bogdanor and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-24 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of Britain's complex relationship with Europe, untangled Is Britain a part of Europe? The British have been ambivalent on this question since the Second World War, when the Western European nations sought to prevent the return of fascism by creating strong international ties throughout the Continent. Britain reluctantly joined the Common Market, the European Community, and ultimately the European Union, but its decades of membership never quite led it to accept a European orientation. In the view of the distinguished political scientist Vernon Bogdanor, the question of Britain’s relationship to Europe is rooted in “the prime conflict of our time,” the dispute between the competing faiths of liberalism and nationalism. This concise, expertly guided tour provides the essential background to the struggle over Brexit.

Download or read book The Story of Britain written by Roy Strong and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2018-06-14 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A triumph' INDEPENDENT 'A thought-provoking and indispensable book' DAILY MAIL 'An instant classic ... I have been reading it with unalloyed admiration and delight' EVENING STANDARD Roy Strong has written an exemplary introduction to the history of Britain, as first designated by the Romans. It is a brilliant and balanced account of successive ages bound together by a compelling narrative which answers the questions: 'Where do we come from?' and 'Where are we going?' Beginning with the earliest recorded Celtic times, and ending with the present day of Brexit Britain, it is a remarkable achievement. With his passion, enthusiasm and wide-ranging knowledge, he is the ideal narrator. His book should be read by anyone, anywhere, who cares about Britain's national past, national identity and national prospects.

Download or read book Welcome to Just a Minute written by Nicholas Parsons and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2014-08-18 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A joyous compendium of facts, fun and stories. This hilarious and informative guide is destined to become the companion to radio's most enduring panel game' PAUL MERTON In this first ever official companion, chairman Nicholas Parsons tells the fascinating story of the much-loved panel game and Graham Norton, Sue Perkins, Jenny Eclair and Gyles Brandreth share their memories of the show. Over the decades, the greats of British comedy have entertained Just a Minute listeners with performances that have come to define our comic heritage - from Kenneth Williams' outrageously funny 'battles' with Sheila Hancock, Clement Freud's acerbic wit and Derek Nimmo's tall tales to Paul Merton's imaginative flights of fancy, Julian Clary's flagrant innuendos and Pam Ayres' poetic humour. Welcome to Just a Minute! is an entertaining journey through British comedy history and a master class in comic timing, verbal dexterity and sharp one-liners.

Download or read book Eleven Minutes Late written by Matthew Engel and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-02-05 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Britain gave railways to the world, yet its own network is the dearest (definitely) and the worst (probably) in Western Europe. Trains are deeply embedded in the national psyche and folklore - yet it is considered uncool to care about them. For Matthew Engel the railway system is the ultimate expression of Britishness. It represents all the nation's ingenuity, incompetence, nostalgia, corruption, humour, capacity for suffering and even sexual repression. To uncover its mysteries, Engel has travelled the system from Penzance to Thurso, exploring its history and talking to people from politicians to platform staff. Along the way Engel ('half-John Betjeman, half-Victor Meldrew') finds the most charmingly bizarre train in Britain, the most beautiful branch line, the rudest railwayman, and - after a quest lasting decades - an Individual Pot of Strawberry Jam. Eleven Minutes Late is both a polemic and a paean, and it is also very funny.

Download or read book Till Time s Last Sand written by David Kynaston and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-07 with total page 897 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ____________________ The authorised history of the Bank of England by the bestselling David Kynaston, 'the most entertaining historian alive' (Spectator). 'Kynaston's aim is to provide a history of the Bank for the general reader and in this he triumphantly succeeds, providing a worthy complement to the notable series of books on different periods of the Bank's history ... wonderfully readable' Financial Times 'Not an ordinary bank, but a great engine of state,' Adam Smith declared of the Bank of England as long ago as 1776. The Bank is now over 320 years old, and throughout almost all that time it has been central to British history. Yet to most people, despite its increasingly high profile, its history is largely unknown. Till Time's Last Sand by David Kynaston is the first authoritative and accessible single-volume history of the Bank of England, opening with the Bank's founding in 1694 in the midst of the English financial revolution and closing in 2013 with Mark Carney succeeding Mervyn King as Governor. This is a history that fully addresses the important debates over the years about the Bank's purpose and modes of operation and that covers such aspects as monetary and exchange-rate policies and relations with government, the City and other central banks. Yet this is also a narrative that does full justice to the leading episodes and characters of the Bank, while taking care to evoke a real sense of the place itself, with its often distinctively domestic side. Deploying an array of piquant and revealing material from the Bank's rich archives, Till Time's Last Sand is a multi-layered and insightful portrait of one of our most important national institutions, from one of our leading historians. ____________________ 'The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street has been waiting for a biographer who could do justice to the richness of her story ... This is the work of a scholar with a gift for illuminating every square inch of each enormous canvas he chooses to paint ... Kynaston brings characters large and small to life' Literary Review 'full of human detail ... an exemplary narrative history, with the archives plundered judiciously and plenty of focus on people and their quirks ... rendered on an entertainingly human scale' The Times 'A triumph ... this portrait of the Bank of England really is fascinating, at times even gripping' Sunday Telegraph

Download or read book A Little History of the World written by E. H. Gombrich and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: E. H. Gombrich's Little History of the World, though written in 1935, has become one of the treasures of historical writing since its first publication in English in 2005. The Yale edition alone has now sold over half a million copies, and the book is available worldwide in almost thirty languages. Gombrich was of course the best-known art historian of his time, and his text suggests illustrations on every page. This illustrated edition of the Little History brings together the pellucid humanity of his narrative with the images that may well have been in his mind's eye as he wrote the book. The two hundred illustrations—most of them in full color—are not simple embellishments, though they are beautiful. They emerge from the text, enrich the author's intention, and deepen the pleasure of reading this remarkable work. For this edition the text is reset in a spacious format, flowing around illustrations that range from paintings to line drawings, emblems, motifs, and symbols. The book incorporates freshly drawn maps, a revised preface, and a new index. Blending high-grade design, fine paper, and classic binding, this is both a sumptuous gift book and an enhanced edition of a timeless account of human history.

Download or read book 1066 and All That written by W C Sellar and published by Hassell Street Press. This book was released on 2021-09-09 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Download or read book Finest Hour written by Tim Clayton and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2002-02-12 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book recreates the tensions and uncertainties of the events of 1940.

Download or read book A History of Britain written by Simon Schama and published by Random House. This book was released on 2003 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first volume in this history of Britain tells the story of Britain from the time of the earliest settlements discovered in the Orkneys to the death of Queen Elizabeth the First.

Download or read book A History of Modern Britain written by Andrew Marr and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-07-03 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr confronts head-on the victory of shopping over politics. This edition also includes an extra chapter charting the course from Blair to Brexit. It tells the story of how the great political visions of New Jerusalem or a second Elizabethan Age, rival idealisms, came to be defeated by a culture of consumerism, celebrity and self-gratification. In each decade, political leaders think they know what they are doing, but find themselves confounded. Every time, the British people turn out to be stroppier and harder to herd than predicted. Throughout, Britain is a country on the edge – first of invasion, then of bankruptcy, then on the vulnerable front line of the Cold War and later in the forefront of the great opening up of capital and migration now reshaping the world. This history follows all the political and economic stories, but deals too with comedy, cars, the war against homosexuals, Sixties anarchists, oil-men and punks, Margaret Thatcher's wonderful good luck, political lies and the true heroes of British theatre.

Download or read book The Goalkeeper s History of Britain written by Peter Chapman and published by HarperCollins (UK). This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The beguiling story of one boy's dream to play in goal, that most British of positions, culminating in the moment when he faces the mighty Zico ...

Download or read book Our Island Story written by H. E. Marshall and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-02-20 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our Island Story is the "history" of England up to Queen Victoria's Death. Marshall used these stories to tell her children about their homeland, Great Britain. To add to the excitement, she mixed in a bit of myth as well as a few legends.

Download or read book The Hardest Day written by Alfred Price and published by Haynes Publishing UK. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of one single day in the Battle of Britain. Sunday 18 August 1940 saw the Luftwaffe launch three major air assaults on Britain and the events of that day changed the destiny of the war. Alfred Price gives a compelling minute-by-minute account of that hardest day as experienced by those involved – RAF and Luftwaffe aircrew, behind-the-scenes planners and strategists, and members of the public above whose towns and villages the battle was waged. The author’s exhaustive research was indeed timely because many of those he interviewed during the 1970s are no longer alive.

Download or read book A History of Roman Britain written by Peter Salway and published by Oxford Paperbacks. This book was released on 2001-05-31 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'One could not ask for a more meticulous or scholarly assessment of what Britain meant to the Romans, or Rome to Britons, than Peter Salway's Monumental Study' Frederick Raphael, Sunday Times From the invasions of Julius Caesar to the unexpected end of Roman rule in the early fifth century AD and the subsequent collapse of society in Britain, this book is the most authoritative and comprehensive account of Roman Britain ever published for the general reader. Peter Salway's narrative takes into account the latest research including exciting discoveries of recent years, and will be welcomed by anyone interested in Roman Britain.

Download or read book Battle of Britain Day 15 September 1940 written by Alfred Price and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle of Britain had already been raging across the skies for two months when on 15 September 1940 - commemorated each year since as 'Battle of Britain Day' - the Luftwaffe mounted two huge daylight raids on London. Dr Alfred Price's definitive book, based on interviews with the people involved as well as official records and documents, is the only full-scale work on the events of this pivotal day.