Bücher von Simon Heffer

'An epic new history . . . a work of epic scholarship, breathtaking range, and piercing originality' Daily Express'An astonishing achievement of narrative history . . . I think the word is "magisterial".' Spectator'Excellent, thorough, detailed and combatively argued.' Sunday Times______________________________________Sing As We Go is an astonishingly ambitious overview of the political, social and cultural history of the country from 1919 to 1939.It explores and explains the politics of the period, and puts such moments of national turmoil as the General Strike of 1926 and the Abdication Crisis of 1936 under the microscope. It offers pen portraits of the era's most significant figures. It traces the changing face of Britain as cars made their first mass appearance, the suburbs sprawled, and radio and cinema became the means of mass entertainment. And it probes the deep divisions that split the nation: between the haves and have-nots, between warring ideological factions, and between those who promoted accommodation with fascism in Europe and those who bitterly opposed it.__________________________________________'Magisterial . . . an extraordinary achievement.' Literary Review'A masterful portrayal of political, social and cultural upheaval between the wars.' Daily Mail

This is a tweedy purveyor of folklore; too many larks ascending and too much. "e;Linden Lea"e;: no composer's work has ever been more cruelly stereotyped than that of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The truth could hardly have been more different: that folksy feel masked the highest sophistication, that countrified air the most audacious experimentation. If, unlike his Germanizing contemporary Elgar, Vaughan Williams did indeed open the way to a distinctively English Music, his was an Englishness which owed nothing to narrow-mindedness or lack of artistic enterprise. Fifty years after his death in 1958, Vaughan Williams' reputation is greater than ever before and there is a resurgence of interest in his music. Re-issued to coincide with this anniversary, Simon Heffer's perceptive book lends weight to the increasingly compelling case for Vaughan Williams' recognition as the most important English composer of the twentieth century. "e;A vivid and appealing picture of an irresistibly likeable figure...I enjoyed this little book enormously"e;. ("e;Spectator"e;). "e;An affectionate, accurate and shrewd account of Vaughan Williams' life ...the author's astute commentary on it betokens close and knowledgeable acquaintance"e;. ("e;Sunday Telegraph"e;).

'A brilliant and scholarly biography of an extraordinary figure.' Lord Blake, Country Life'A fresh, engaging, conscientious account of one of the great Victorians.' Michael Foot, London Review of Books'A thorough and convincing account of 'the sage''. Peter Ackroyd, Times Thomas Carlyle was the most influential man of letters of his day, and his vivid account of the French Revolution remains one of the classic histories. Even George Eliot, no admirer, wrote: 'It is an idle question to ask whether his books will be read a century hence; if they were all burnt as the grandest of Suttes on his funeral pyre, it would only be like cutting down an oak after its acorns have sown a forest.'Simon Heffer draws upon previously unavailable papers to reassess a magnificent, defiant and often lonely individualist whose idiosyncratic and passionate books brought him universal fame.