England
Seven Myths That Changed a Country – and How to Set Them Straight
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England
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Narrated by:
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James Bartlett
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents England by Tom Baldwin and Marc Stears, read by James Bartlett.
‘Challenging, forensic, compelling' SATHNAM SANGHERA
‘Pure centrist erotica. A myth-busting chronicle of bad-tempered, Brexit-riven England' SUNDAY TIMES
‘Wonderfully evocative. Too honest, too nuanced and too deep for any party manifesto' MATTHEW PARRIS
After an election where people voted for a politics that our new Prime Minister describes as 'treading more lightly on people’s lives', this must-read book charts a gentler course for a country that has suffered the ructions of profound change in recent decades.
Some politicians will still talk of restoring an English birthright of liberty and the swashbuckling self-confidence to rule the waves. Others yearn for the old-fashioned morality which they claim once civilised a savage world or want to look inwards to a story of an enchanted island that can stand alone and isolated against the world.
But England, by Tom Baldwin, the bestselling biographer of Keir Starmer, and Marc Stears, an influential think tank head, unravels the myths that have distorted ideas of this country and provided ammunition for culture warriors from both left and right.
Instead of vainly promising to solve everything all at once, Baldwin and Stears provide clues for how a humbler, less grandiose, set of ideas rooted in real lives can help fix some of the things that have gone so badly wrong in recent years.
They travel from muddy fields in the Home Counties to the ports of Plymouth and Hull. They visit the old industrial heartland of Wolverhampton, spend weekends in the worn-down seaside resort of Blackpool, then gaze up the gleaming towers of modernity on the edge of London and the dreaming spires of Oxford. Along the way, they speak with many different people who tell stories of England, including politicians Nigel Farage and David Lammy, campaigner Chrisann Jarrett, playwright James Graham and scientist Sarah Gilbert.
What emerges is a startlingly fresh and vivid picture of an old country that belongs to everyone, or at least, to no one in particular.
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What listeners say about England
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Antony Irvine
- 28-07-24
narration
narration impossible to listen to. I need my money back. hugely disappointing. can't get to end of chapter 1 and need money back.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- MR IAN G SMITH
- 02-06-24
Distracting Narration
As pointed out by other reviewers the overall impact is spoiled by a narration which uses idiosyncratic pronunciation of even basic words. It’s like having the book read by your Sat Nav! Must be an AI voice? Never had this problem with other Audible books. Had I realised earlier I would have just read the book myself!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- A.V. Juggins
- 20-06-24
Was the narration done by AI?
Horrible enunciation and pronunciation of common English words made this torture to listen to. I lasted an hour and had to give up and return. Very poor quality control here.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- FailedTheTuringTest
- 01-05-24
Interesting exploration of 'founding myths' spoiled by poor reading
The exploration of some of the founding myths of England is fascinating and i bought this after hearing some very interesting interviews with the authors. If only the authors had recorded the audio version! The performance here is awful - many words grievously mispronounced and the rhythm at times making it clear that the reader doesn't understand the text. I began to suspect that this was read by one of the new generation of computer voices, rather than by a person.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 13-05-24
Terrible Audio sounds like a computer
Really like the story but just can’t listen anymore to the audio. It sounds computer generated. It’s just Spoiling the story and my enjoyment. The word ‘however getting on my nerves now. Please get someone else to read this great story and I will be happy to listen again. It’s sounds like a politician or journalist is reading it. Bad 😢
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- IT Pro
- 28-10-24
Terrible narration - was it AI??
Shocking to listen to - if someone else could record this I would listen to this great story again but I’m afraid I cannot listen to anymore - a first for me!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 01-05-24
Great book terrible narration
This is a really fascinating book but I have had to stop listening to it because the terrible narration has finally got to me. I appreciate that narration is a difficult skill but so many even ordinary words are mispronounced. I can’t understand how this could have got through even the most basic editorial process. I have listened to many audiobooks and this is by far the poorest rendition. Such a shame.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Jean Stevenson
- 22-09-24
Narration extremely bad
The pronunciation of words in the text is very distracting - it makes understanding extremely difficult. Emphasis is put in the wrong places
I struggle to understand why it should be SO bad.. if the system allowed I would give a negative rating.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Sam Owen
- 01-05-24
Terrible narration
The theme and story of this book was potentially of huge interest to me, but the narration is insanely bad so unfortunately I’ve had to abandon it (that’s the first time that’s happened in over 250 audio books)
There are so many words poorly pronounced and the intonation is all over the place. I’m pretty sure this is done by bad AI - should come with a warning.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Alex
- 17-06-24
Bad narration
The premise of the book is interesting, but unfortunately James Bartlett's narration is so bad it's difficult to keep listening.
It includes frequent simple mis-pronounciations, poor sentence cadence and intonations that is distracting for the listener.
For a book examining Englishness, it's important that the narrator understands the topic, pronounces correctly or at least dictates it well, but this one does not.
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