Search results for ""Author Alwyn Turner""

''There have been plenty of books on the Edwardians before, but never one as richly enjoyable as this ... nobody has done a better job of capturing what ordinary people thought and cared about more than a century ago'' Dominic Sandbrook, Book of the Week, Sunday Times''In Little Englanders, Alwyn Turner reveals striking parallels between Britain in decline at the start of the 20th century and our own divisive age ... [a] page turner of a popular history'' Andrew Marr, New Statesman''The very best sort of panoramic portrait'' David Kynaston''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''Britain''s most electrifying contemporary social historian conjures the forgotten country of more than a century ago ... fiercely recommended'' Alan MooreWhen Queen Victoria died in 1901 it was the end of an era. Britain''s

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'Turner's seductive blend of political analysis, social reportage and cultural immersion puts him wonderfully at ease with his readers' David Kynaston 'Reading Alwyn Turner's account of life in the first two decades of the 21st century is a bit like trying to recall a dream from three nights ago ... uncannily familiar, but the details are downright implausible ' Kathryn Hughes, Guardian Weaving politics and popular culture into a mesmerising tapestry, historian Alwyn Turner tells the definitive story of the Blair, Brown and Cameron years. Some details may trigger a laugh of recognition (the spectre of bird flu; the electoral machinations of Robert Kilroy-Silk). Others are so surreal you could be forgiven for blocking them out first time around (did Peter Mandelson really enlist a Candomblé witch doctor to curse Gordon Brown's press secretary?). The deepest patterns, however, only reveal themselves at a certain distance. Through the Iraq War and the 2008 crash, the rebirth of light entertainment and the rise of the 'problematic', Turner shows how the crisis in the soul of a nation played out in its daily dramas and nightly distractions.

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A SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 'He writes with a tremendous sense of fun. The result is a rare thing: not just a serious work of contemporary history, but an unashamed, 24-carat hoot' - Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times 'Up there with the best ... Reading it is almost like an out-of-body experience' - Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday Perhaps the Brexit vote shouldn't have come as such a shock. In Cool Britannia's long hangover, every pillar of British society seemed to sink into a mire of its own making, from the Church to the banks to the great offices of state. Even the BBC lost its reassuring dignity (though the private schools were doing rather well: their former pupils were everywhere). We were losing our faith in the system. How did it come to this? Weaving politics and popular culture into a mesmerising tapestry, historian Alwyn Turner tells the definitive story of the Blair, Brown and Cameron years. Some details may trigger a laugh of recognition (the spectre of bird flu; the electoral machinations of Robert Kilroy-Silk). Others are so surreal you could be forgiven for blocking them out first time around (did Peter Mandelson really enlist a Candomblé witch doctor to curse Gordon Brown's press secretary?). The deepest patterns, however, only reveal themselves at a certain distance. Through the Iraq War and the 2008 crash, the rebirth of light entertainment and the rise of the 'problematic', Turner shows how the crisis in the soul of a nation played out in its daily dramas and nightly distractions.

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The Bay City Rollers were one of the brightest things to happen in the tumultuous 1970s, illuminating a dark decade marred by falling stock markets, a plummeting economy and industrial unrest. Alan Longmuir, an apprentice plumber from Edinburgh, was inspired by The Beatles to form a band in the 1960s. Firstly, he enlisted his brother and then his cousin and via throwing a dart at a map they eventually became the Bay City Rollers. Success was slow in coming but when it did it was beyond Alan’s (and almost everyone else’s) wildest dreams.A string of million selling records led to Rollermania – a mass-hysterical fan reaction not seen since Beatlemania. Like a wildfire it spread across the world. The Rollers’ juggernaut was out-of-control. Alan Longmuir recounts his surreal journey from the Dalry backstreets to the Hollywood hills and back to being a plumber. Along the way he punctures some of the myths and untruths that have swirled around the group. Most of all, though, Alan captures the great adventure that a bunch of young boys from Edinburgh embarked on that for a few years threatened to turn the whole world tartan. Tragically, while finishing his memoirs Alan Longmuir was taken ill while on a holiday in Mexico marking his 70th birthday and died back in Scotland a short while later. It was his great desire that I Ran With The Gang should be released.

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