Andrew Marr (1)Reseñas

In need of a holiday read, I grabbed this from the library, intrigued that it was written in 2014, and was set in 2017, days before the Brexit referendum. In some ways it didn't disappoint. Marr writes well, describing places, people and conversations with an eye and ear for telling detail. The plot was beyond believable. The PM dies in office, days before the vote, and his inner circle strive to conceal the death. But Marr has his finger on the pulse, and in the end, I was persuaded that this fantastical plot was far too close to possible reality for comfort. All the same, politics isn't my world, and though I enjoyed his writing well enough, it wasn't my kind of tale. Two stars? No, make it three. Just.

“Leading comes from observing what our forefathers and those around us did. Take those lessons and use them to propel your society and kingdom into greatness with tact, skill, commitment, financial astuteness and humbleness of heart and mind whilst also opening your hearts and minds to those of a different race and background than you.”

god i hate the word Brexit, why has that become our go-to word for this sorry mess? (why is it a subtitle on the goodreads title of this book?)

Fortunately this book, written a couple of years before the real referendum and set in a fictional 2017, doesn't use the word Brexit. It's written as a prediction of what would happen. In some ways it didn't get it crazy enough, frankly, but in others it's pretty accurate. Currency loses value overnight, etc.

The book is a bit bloated, overall. It has way too many characters, no true main character or protagonist, so I couldn't really care less when some of the final-hour reveals came by (e.g., two characters turn out to be siblings, but why does it matter?). But too many of the plot threads are left hanging, at the same time. One reveal that irked me a lot was a gay male character bedding a woman for strategic gain at the end. It came across as homophobic on the part of the author, predatory on the part of the woman character. It leaves his partner out in the dust - we never find out what happens to him.

It seems to be unsure how much it can take potshots at real-world figures. Rory Bremner, Jeremy Clarkson, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and the Milibands are namechecked (incidentally, Ed Miliband was the Labour leader for five years?? He made as much impression on me as a wet tea-towel...), but other characters are obvious ersatz versions of Theresa May, for example, and Twitter is renamed Witter. There's also a new King instead of Lizzy, and a Madame President in America - oh, if only!

But some aspects of it worked well. The central thriller plot works really well, building up subtly, and revealing the death of the PM about a third of the way into the book, which happened before all the other events that had been described up until then. I was shocked by the revelation and immediately hooked, and had to go back and check the previous chapters to find that they held together. I also was anxious on the eve of Theresa May's snap election this year and read through about half of the book that evening to calm my nerves a bit.

CUPRINS

1. Multumiri - pag. 7
2. Introducere - pag. 9

3. Partea I - Afara din arsita, spre ger - pag. 21
4. Partea a II-a - Pledoarie pentru razboi - pag. 75
5. Partea a III-a - Sabia si cuvantul - pag. 137
6. Partea a IV-a - Dincolo de creuzetul tulbure - pag. 217
7. Partea a V-a - Detonarea lumii - pag. 287
8. Partea a VI-a - Visuri de libertate - pag. 351
9. Partea a VII-a - Capitalismul si adversarii acestuia - pag. 437
10. Partea a VIII-a - Timpurile noastre - pag. 535

11. Bibliografie - pag. 653

Not a bad overview of early 20th century British history. Others have said that Marr is just regurgitating pieces from other history books and does no research himself, but Marr is a journalist not a historian so the book is written as I expected.

Uninteresting; nothing here to motivate me to read further. Could not recommend. Did not finish.

A History of the World was a major series for the BBC and this is the tie in book, written by Andrew Marr.

The series had eight episodes, and this book has eight substantial chapters, It has the broad brushstrokes of history with lots of details, but not all the minutiae that you would expect from a detailed book on a particular time.

It is generally very readable; written with care and attention to the facts. He uses his journalistic style to criticise where necessary, and comment on historical events. Once or twice he is patronising, but that is it. When reading it i had his distinct voice in my head.

As a general history book, it is very good, however, if you are looking for detail then you need to seek out books relevant to the period that you are looking at.

I’ve enjoyed reading Andrew Marr’s accessible history books, & was looking forward to a political thriller by an insider. But this was out & out farce. An interesting idea about the PM keeling over before the referendum vote & a plan to cover-up the event, but the characters were two-dimensional, and I didn’t gain any insight into the inner workings of the political class. Shame.

This book proved to be a surprisingly readable history of post-1945 Britain. While the book itself focused more strongly upon politics than social history, there were still rather good sections devoted to what set, say, the population of Britain in the 50s apart from the population in Britain today.

While at times the book was a bit verbose and dry, for the most part [a:Andrew Marr|190087|Andrew Marr|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] kept the tone remarkably accessible, and extensively quoted primary sources. The wry British humor is out in force when describing certain politicians, and a few times I had to do a double-take when coming upon some unexpected wit.

This was precisely the book I was looking for in terms of historical content. I would recommend this to anyone looking for an overview of British history, though not necessarily for lighter reading. I would also recommend that anyone wishing to read it get it in hard cover or paperback format as opposed to an e-book, it would be far more easily readable and referenced in physical form.

Impressed by the insight I gained from reading William Hague's book, I was excited to delve into an overview of history by Andrew Marr. I made the effort to read to the end, even though Marr infuriated me within the first few chapters. -It's good to read those you don't fully agree with, and good to try to see things from and through there perspective. My problem was that I felt his strong secular and atheist perspective led to his dismissive and antagonistic twisting of various bits of history and anything to do with faith. He did this in a way that left me worried that he might be presenting other bits of history from a similar "one perspective only," approach and that undermined my trust in him for his accounts of other bits of history that I had no other reference points for.

This is an exhaustive effort. I give the author full marks for effort and research, but four stars for the reading pleasure, owing to my interest waning from the age of invention onwards. I was more engaged by the earliest times through to the mid-to-late 1700s.

Andrew Marr, Politikredakteur bei der BBC mit eigener
Talkshow, ist in Großbritannien eher für seine historischen
Sachbücher bekannt. Sein 1. Roman ist eine turbulente
Politsatire um das Referendum zum Verbleib des Königreichs
in der EU. Die konservative Partei Englands ist tief
gespalten in Befürworter, Gegner und Unentschlossene.
Wenige Tage vor der schicksalhaften Abstimmung verstirbt
ausgerechnet der populären Premierminister in seinem
Amtszimmer. Seine engsten Vertrauten sind so verzweifelt,
dass sie beschließen, mithilfe eines dubiosen Multitalents
die Öffentlichkeit erst mal über den Gesundheitszustand des
Premiers im Unklaren zu lassen. Hier nimmt die Satire
teilweise absurde Züge an. Dass trotzdem noch die meisten
Pointen sitzen, liegt vor allem an den profunden
Insiderkenntnissen und dem scharfzüngigen Humor des Autors.
Unterhaltsame Satire auf den Politik- und Medienzirkus
moderner Gesellschaften. Allen Bibliotheken mit
entsprechender Leserschaft gerne empfohlen.

I believe that this is Andrew Marr's first novel - I hope it will be his last! He should stick to non-fiction in future.

Marr is an enigmatic and engaging character, and he has been through some sinuous twists of fate over the last few years. Having had a long and successful character as a political journalist, including stints as editor of 'The Independent' and chief political correspondent for the BBC, he branched off into making his own television series and writing popular histories (though the last of these, a history of the world took simplicity and the broad brush to hitherto unplumbed levels), again with great success.

His recent BBC series on Scottish writers, timed to coincide with the Referendum was marvellous, particularly the episodes on Sir Walter Scott and Hugh MacDiarmid. His popularity and public image took a bit of a knock with the revelations of his extra-marital affair, though the outrage was more about the hypocrisy of a senior journalist imposing a super-injunction than from any moral perspective. Certainly there has been widespread pleasure at his return to health following his stroke, and he remains immensely, and deservedly, popular.

But now this! The most popular of entertainers must surely know that one can test one's public that little bit too far! I was expecting a political thriller on a par with Gavin Esler's 'A Scandalous Man' or Martin Sixsmith's 'Spin' but I was sold a dreadful dummy here. this was like looking forward to an episode of 'Have I Got New For You?' but finding that the guests are Glenda Jackson and Anne Robinson, and Stanley Johnson is chairing it.

Het blijft natuurlijk een prestatie: de hele wereldgeschiedenis samenvatten in 560 bladzijden. Marr kwijt zich goed van zijn taak, in die zin, dat hij een heel goed volgbaar verhaal brengt en een poging doet om de hele wereld te overzien. Maar toch. De auteur heeft zich beperkt tot de grote politieke ontwikkelingen, en tot een verhaal waarin grote figuren centraal staan; dat bevordert natuurlijk de verstaanbaarheid en de inzichtelijkheid, maar het blijft erg reductionistisch; economie en cultuur komen nauwelijks in het stuk voor (met uitzondering van godsdiensten en de industriële revolutie). Bovendien ligt er nog altijd een stevig accent op de Westerse geschiedenis, en een toch iets te groot aandeel van de Britten daarin.
Marr heeft blijkens de bibliografie behoorlijk wat werken geraadpleegd, en zijn foutenlast is - voor zo ver ik kan beoordelen - relatief klein. Globaal genomen heb ik enkele kleine weetjes opgestoken (zoals het feit dat de Amerikaanse indianen pas in de 18de eeuw paarden en pony's gingen gebruiken), maar grote nieuwe inzichten zitten er niet in dit boek.½

During the Council of Elrond in The Fellowship of the Ring, after Bilbo rather petulantly offers to set his cosy retirement aside and do his bit by taking the Ring to Mordor, Gandalf assuages his ire, saying, "We do not doubt that … you are making a valiant offer. But one beyond your strength, Bilbo." Perhaps it might have been better for all of us if some similarly astute wizard had been on hand to counsel Andrew Marr.

I had enjoyed his previous ventures in the field, A History of Modern Britain and The Making of Modern Britain but there he was operating on a far smaller field and negotiating with a much more manageable palette. Between them those two books (each similar in size to this latest offering) merely cover the twentieth century in Britain. To be fair, in the preface he concedes that "writing a history of the world is a ridiculous thing to do", and that encompassing such a subject in one volume is, like Bilbo, over ambitious.

He paints in broad strokes, and divides his chapters into general themes, and he certainly amasses an interesting hoard of facts. His journalistic background proves valuables, too, as he corrals them successfully, keeping the reader's interest without overburdening him with minutiae. Still, in one volume such a work can only ever aspire to scratch the surface, and Marr does well not to sink into a sea of platitudes.½

Andrew Marr has written his most ambitious historical work yet. A History of the World - actually, a history of civilisation - traces the development of human society across the globe, trying to include all significant societies along the way. Of course, no one can write a true history of all human civilisations, the subject is just too big. Andrew Marr addresses this by using significant tipping point events that he believes had a global impact. He also tries not to be Euro-centric or Western-centric, but this is not very successful, mainly because, to date, many globally significant events did originate in European/Western culture. Marr has an easy entertaining style that makes reading these 500 pages a pleasure rather than a chore. However, he only skims the surface of his subject and ends up with a series of interesting anecdotes and vignettes with no real view of what looking at human history on the global scale can tell us. As an entertaining introductory narrative to world history this is an excellent book.½

Journalist and TV presenter Andrew Marr made a documentary to commemorate Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee and this is the book which accompanies the series.
It charts the Queen's story from the time of her grandfather, George V, who she called Grandpa England all the way through to the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton last year. Marr presents a compelling case for the monarchy as well as telling the life story of an extraordinary woman. All the important historical events are included: the abdication crisis, the second world war, the early death if her father, George VI, the formation of the Commonwealth and the death of Princess Diana.
A very interesting and informative read, for both those who are for and against the British Constitutional Monarchy.

The Diamond Jubilee (60 year anniversary) of Elizabeth II this year seemed an appropriate time to read a biography and as there are hundreds to choose from I chose Andrew Marr's (which was written especially for the occasion) as I've wanted to read his History of Modern Britain for quite a while now.

This is not a gossipy biography of the Queen, as Marr makes clear in the preface (and in that respect the American title is rather unfortunate - it's not really an intimate portrait of Elizabeth II). Rather, it's an explanation of what monarchy means, how the British constitutional monarchy works and operates, the way the Windsor dynasty changed during the 20th century and what exactly the Queen does and how it's all paid for. There's also quite a bit of history and politics thrown in as it would be impossible to talk about the Queen's role throughout her reign without mentioning the various governments and ministers who have been in power.

As you might expect, this is a pro-monarchy biography rather than a republican one. It's unlikely to convince any republicans to change their minds but as someone who's always been a bit of a fan of our current Queen it made me admire her more for what she does on a day to day basis (and bear in mind that most people her age would have retired and been enjoying Saga holidays for the last twenty years). Marr is a very smooth writer and I found this to be a very engaging read and a good introduction to the British monarchy of the 20th century.

I enjoyed it but it was a little too much politics and not enough good gossip! It is well written. The prose moves right along.

Quite interesting though rather simplistic: after all this is a journalist's book rather than a proper historian's.

Thoroughly readable and illuminating account of the politics and culture from the 2nd WW to now. It seems as though Britain has always lurched from one economic crisis to another.

Marr is a truly superb historian and this book is testament to that. An insightful look into the politcal and social evolution of Britain from the Edwardian period to the end of the second world war. A must read for anyone intersted in early twentieth century history.½

Interesting interpretations & facts from political and cultural life, from the Edwardian era to the end of the Second World War.

30 Nov 2009 - Amazon

The book that goes side-by-side with the TV series - as Marr says in the introduction, there are certainly different levels of detail on different events and strands in the two. Another excellent read with lots of detail and some good pictures too. Marr can come across as a bit arrogant, laying down his opinions on people and situtations very firmly, but then he is very intelligent and well-read. My only criticism of the reading experience is that I read it perhaps too close to watching the series, so some of it seemed repetitive when it in fact wasn't. But - entertaining and informative - so glad I saw and read it.

Andrew Marr writes a rollicking good narrative history. He seems able to pick out those events, people and ideas that reflect the overall themes of history and shine a slightly different light on what we have always thought to be the ‘standard’ way of thinking.

This book sweeps through 50 years and every aspect of life in Britain with all the stones lifted and whatever lies beneath revealed and addressed, often in a jokey playful way. He always seems to be saying, look at what they did, if only they had known what we know now. This is unfailingly populist history and I think this is where the biggest criticism of the book may come. For me this is an overview that allows me to select those areas I want to look into more deeply. A bit light on World War II, though.

I enjoyed this history immensely as an entertainment and a clear-headed picture of Britain.