{"product_id":"one-fine-day-9781408708583","title":"One Fine Day","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Breathtaking... vital and important. A wonderful read'' \u003c\/b\u003ePETER FRANKOPAN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Marvellous... escapes the inane, balance-sheet view of Empire and sees its full complexity'' \u003c\/b\u003eSATHNAM SANGHERA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Excellent... his mastery of detail is impeccable'' \u003c\/b\u003eDOMINIC SANDBROOK, \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Extraordinary... [brings] the world of a century ago to fresh, vivid life''\u003c\/b\u003e ALEX VON TUNZELMANN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTHE STORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE AT ITS MAXIMUM TERRITORIAL EXTENT\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn Saturday 29 September 1923, the Palestine Mandate became law and the British Empire now covered a scarcely credible quarter of the world''s land mass, containing 460 million people. It was the largest empire the world had ever seen. But it was beset by debt and doubts. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  This book is a new way of looking at the British Empire. It immerses the reader in the contemporary moment, focusing on particular people and stories from that day, gleaned from newspapers, letters, dia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCompelling... we remain in a state of suspense throughout\u003c\/b\u003e * Observer *\u003cbr\u003eExtraordinary... superb... It is a book for serious people who can handle difficult moral contradictions, and will undoubtedly annoy zealots of all stripes * Daily Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eI greatly enjoyed Matthew Parker's \u003ci\u003eOne Fine Day\u003c\/i\u003e... \u003cb\u003ehugely impressive in its research and balance and fully deserving of its many plaudits\u003c\/b\u003e * Spectator, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eExcellent... his mastery of detail is impeccable\u003c\/b\u003e -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003erefreshingly nuanced\u003c\/b\u003e montage of the Empire on its last legs... Empire was many things and Parker belongs to that vanishing minority that recognises this. What we have here is \u003cb\u003ea fair appraisal of the life of the land, elegantly synthesised\u003c\/b\u003e... By 1923, Parker shows with suggestive brilliance in his montage, Empire was on its last legs -- Pratinav Anil * The Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMarvellous\u003c\/b\u003e... escapes the inane, balance-sheet view of Empire and sees it in its full complexity * Sathnam Sanghera *\u003cbr\u003eBreathtaking, extraordinarily rich and beautifully written.\u003ci\u003e One Fine Day\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ea vital and important history that is truly global in scope and ambition\u003c\/b\u003e. A wonderful read * Peter Frankopan *\u003cbr\u003eAn engrossing and wide-ranging account of the zenith of the British Empire - with all the contradictions, brittleness, ambition and hubris that moment entailed. Across Continents and characters, Matthew Parker provides \u003cb\u003ea new, global history of British imperialism which feels both epic and immediate\u003c\/b\u003e. * Tristram Hunt *\u003cbr\u003eExtraordinary. Matthew Parker's \u003cb\u003emagisterial sweep through one day of British imperial history\u003c\/b\u003e and culture plunges us into the global complexity of the British Empire, bringing the world of a century ago to fresh, vivid life.\u003cb\u003e An astonishing achievement\u003c\/b\u003e. * Alex von Tunzelmann *\u003cbr\u003eAn epic portrait of the British Empire on the brink... \u003cb\u003eParker paints a brilliant picture, teeming with fresh faces and new voices\u003c\/b\u003e * Jessie Childs *\u003cbr\u003eThere is something Shakespearian about Matthew Parker's insightful argument that it was at exactly the time that the British Empire reached its greatest territorial size that the factors coalesced which were to destroy it... Parker has rendered a signal service by convincingly pinpointing the exact fulcrum moment in its half-millennium long history * Andrew Roberts *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eExquisitely crafted and beautifully written, full of delicious detail and extraordinary insight\u003c\/b\u003e * Augustus Casely-Hayford OBE, curator, cultural historian, and director of V\u0026amp;A East *\u003cbr\u003eA panoramic view of the British Empire on September 29, 1923... Parker vividly demonstrates the empire's vast reach and the 'impossibly conflicting interests between government [and] the governed' ... Accessible and sturdy, this expansive account provides solid ground for understanding the decline of the British Empire. It's an eye-opening and a unique vantage point from which to study 20th-century history * Publishers Weekly *\u003cbr\u003eAn ambitious history of the beginning of the end of vast dominions of the British Empire on Sept. 29, 1923... a multilayered portrait, with deep contextual background... \u003cb\u003eAn impressive work of research and synthesis tracing the end of an empire\u003c\/b\u003e * Kirkus *\u003cbr\u003eEpic in scale yet intimate in detail... a vast historical canvas on which each individual brushstroke had been brought vividly to life. A narrative triumph * Giles Milton, author of Checkmate in Berlin *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn engrossing read sprung from an impressive archival sweep\u003c\/b\u003e... Parker tells the unwieldy story of empire through a microcosm, and in so doing captures it in all its chaotic contradictions... \u003cb\u003eAn impressive feat that few historians are capable of\u003c\/b\u003e * David Veevers, author of The Great Defiance: How the world took on the British Empire *\u003cbr\u003eA picture of an empire straining under the weight of its own contradictions... Mr Parker points this out with copious examples and meticulous research * The Economist *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOne Fine Day\u003c\/i\u003e takes\u003cb\u003e an engrossing trip round [the British Empire]\u003c\/b\u003e at the very moment, almost exactly 100 years ago, when it reached its greatest extent -- Robert Tombs * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003eA clever concept that works extraordinarily well... Exhaustively researched and sensitively written, \u003ci\u003eOne Fine Day\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ea superbly nuanced snapshot of the British Empire at its apogee\u003c\/b\u003e -- Saul David * Literary Review *\u003cbr\u003e[An] impressive history... Parker has scoured newspapers, letters and diaries for \u003cb\u003enuanced, first-person accounts of the reality of empire\u003c\/b\u003e -- Michael Prodger * New Statesman *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Little, Brown Book Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48739040887127,"sku":"9781408708583","price":21.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781408708583.jpg?v=1720050976","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/one-fine-day-9781408708583","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}