Our Times: The Age of Elizabeth II [Hardcover]

A. N. Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 2009

When Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953, many proclaimed the start of a new Elizabethan Age. Few had any inkling, however, of the stupendous changes that would occur over the next fifty years, both in Britain and around the world.

In Our Times, A. N. Wilson takes the reader on an exhilarating journey through postwar Britain. With his acute eye not just for the broad social and cultural sweep but also for the telling detail, he brilliantly distills half a century of unprecedented social and political change. Here are the defining events and characters of the modern age, from the Suez crisis to Vietnam, from the Beatles to Princess Diana. Here are the Angry Young Men, the rise of pop culture and celebrity, industrial unrest and the Winter of Discontent, the Thatcher era and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. This book propels the reader from postwar austerity, to the end of the British Empire and the emergence of America as a superpower, to the multicultural Britain of today.

With Our Times, Wilson triumphantly concludes the acclaimed trilogy that opened with The Victorians and was followed by After the Victorians. Our Times makes compelling reading for anyone interested in the forces that have shaped our world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Although the second Elizabethan era has been a period in which the majority of the British basked in comfort, security, and luxury, it is also the reign in which Britain effectively stopped being British, contends the opinionated and entertaining Wilson (After the Victorians). The prolific novelist and historian points to immigrants who have not integrated or learned English, the virtual dissolution of the Church of England, the injection of American culture, and membership in the European Union as destructive of the common culture and national identity. According to Wilson, the late Princess Diana paradoxically reminded people of why monarchy is a more satisfactory system of government than republicanism. It allows a focus on persons, rather than upon institutions. The Profumo affair strengthened the press, but intelligent people who wanted their sex lives to remain private were frightened away from politics. Delightfully sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, and always controversial and ironic, Wilson takes no prisoners as he calls Queen Elizabeth II badly educated, Churchill an embarrassment in his last days as prime minister, and Tony Blair a Thatcherite who lacked the one thing necessary to be a successful Thatcherite, namely the enjoyment of being hated. 24 pages of b&w illus. (Jan.)
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Review

Praise for Our Times

“The author’s often unconventional and funny takes on even the most familiar of subjects keep the pages turning.” —Stephen Lowman, The Washington Post

“[An] idiosyncratic history of modern Britain . . . In The Victorians and After the Victorians, Mr. Wilson showed an uncanny capacity for getting at the heart of past ages. In Our Times, the trilogy’s concluding volume . . .The author once again gives us a multifaceted portrait of an era. Like its predecessors, the book is enlivened by Mr. Wilson’s gift for anecdote [and] character analysis . . . His discussion of the time is infused with a directly personal memory of people, places and events. The result is a piquant refraction of an era of enormous change through a prism that is highly individualistic, even at times eccentric, but in the end deeply rooted and fundamentally true . . . The enthusiasms expressed in Our Times are enjoyable to encounter, but it is Mr. Wilson’s wicked wit that carries the reader along.” —Martin Rubin, The Wall Street Journal

“Delightfully sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, and always controversial and ironic.” —Publishers Weekly

“[Our Times] shows the author as a deeply committed watcher of our time, offering even American readers a great deal to ruminate over. By turns sardonic, rueful, engaging and cantankerous.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Wilson produces a history that even those not familiar with Great Britain will find fascinating.” —Library Journal

“A. N. Wilson’s Our Times is a scholarly, dark, and at times mordantly funny view of Britain’s recent history.” —Michael D. Langan, The Buffalo News

 

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (December 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374228205
• ISBN-13: 978-0374228200
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #908,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good to the Last Drop, November 7, 2008

By 

Patrick Odaniel (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Our Times: The Age of Elizabeth II (Hardcover)

This is the concluding volume of A. N. Wilson's trilogy of modern British history, preceded by The Victorians and After The Victorians. The book begins with the coronation of Elizabeth II and goes right on up to the bumbling ineptitude of Gordon Brown in 2008. It traces the rapid decline and fall of "Britishness" with one small, shining moment known as "Thatcherism." True, A. N. Wilson is an opinionated dunderhead whose writing turns to journalistic drivel more often than not. But I don't care because he's produced yet another thumping good read. The pages turn themselves, I swear.

Oh, and too bad no U.S. publisher has yet picked up this wonderful book. Maybe the head of the Nobel Prize committee on literature had a point about American insularity. Luckily, there's amazon.co.uk where I got my copy (and, oddly enough, the shipping seems to be faster than amazon.com).

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sardonic, Witty, Fascinating, February 16, 2010

By 

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Our Times: The Age of Elizabeth II (Hardcover)

I could hardly bear to put this book down. A.N. Wilson is unsurpassed in his ability to turn a fine phrase or craft a devious witticism, and here he provides a worthy successor to his The Victorians and After The Victorians. This volume begins with the accession of Elizabeth II in 1952, but it rarely mentions the monarch herself, concentrating instead on the multitudinous changes which have marked her reign, making Britain a much more prosperous place to live while causing the country to lose its special character or "Britishness." Wilson never seems quite able to define exactly what it is that the British have lost, anymore than anyone else can, but he does succeed in making the point that something that made Britain special is gone, and that the country, while richer and freer than it was in 1952, is the worse for the loss.

The book runs roughly chronologically through the Queen's six decades as Head of State. Wilson delights in bursting bubbles and serrating reputations, as when he labels Churchill's last years as PM a national embarrassment. He freely tosses around terms like "second rate" and "ineffectual", providing evidence with some barbed anecdotes that are wickedly fun to read. His chief target is the so-called "chattering classes", self-appointed elites who presumed they formed the Establishment in its various phases. Some of his heroes are a bit unexpected: he has kind words for Margaret Thatcher and the Prince of Wales. One of his most interesting chapters comes towards the end: "The Return of God," an examination of the interplay of faith and science.

Wilson ends his book with a chapter on the increasingly hapless Gordon Brown, which is particularly appropriate since it helps set the stage for the approaching General Election. I'm an American and an anglophile of many years standing. I found much in this book to be surprising and sometimes infuriating, but every word was entertaining and thought provoking.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SCANDAL, SIN & SEX ACROSS A SNAPSHOT HISTORY, April 3, 2010

By 

RAY RIDGE (FINLAND) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Our Times: The Age of Elizabeth II (Hardcover)

A.N. WILSON'S short history of the United Kingdom during the reign of HM Queen Elizabeth II is lively and informative.
A distinguished Historian with several other more serious tomes published during a long career A.N.Wilson has taken on the relatively difficult task of a historical analysis on a period many of the readership will have lived through. Therefore, readers will know from experience or anecdotally something of many areas this book covers.
He manages to start his account of post-WW2 British Isles from the standpoint of J.R.Tolkein's epic English language fairy-tale, Lord of the Rings which was largely conceived in reaction to the enormous trials & tribulations brought about by the 2 great European conflicts (1914-18/1939-45)! However, from that slightly off-the-target beginning emerges an erudite and closely detailed checklist of all the main Britishness issues.
From 1950s Oxbridge 'Spy-ring' scandals through to Profumo-Keeler scandal and on to epic scandal of Thatcher's sycophant Tory Cabinet turning on the 'only man' in it ('Thatcher', as Dennis Skinner shouted out during her resignation Commons speech) and up to the much more recent scandal of Stephen Lawrence-Met Police 'institutionalised racism': Those topics of course being part of the introduction to the social-political background ethos of each decade.
A.N.Wilson's account of G.B. ascent/descent, depending on the reader's particular outlook, into the EUropean Union is covered in some depth: However, there is a lack of appreciation of the impact of this fundamental change on Britons and their cultural viewpoint. Unfortunately, as with so many books dealing with this area the narrative concentrates on the great political inferences and in the main misses the ordinary citizens' confusion & disquiet about 'ever closer union' with Continental EUrope.
You will enjoy reading this book for some confidently thrown quips, e.g. the Punk band, "Sex Pistols..saw the reign of QUEII as 'a fascist regime'. There was in fact much in common between the rhetoric of punk and the angry revolt, championed by Margaret Thatcher, of the suburbs against Conservative Politics."
Now there's a line I'm sure many of You didn't ever think to read... Thatcher's anarchic policies expressed in Punk-power!
It is worth reading if only for the diverting way the author manages to find such correlation between British society and the supposed leading lights of Great Britain.
Weaknesses: Scotland & Wales even with 'devolution' have only bit-parts. Northern Ireland fairs better in the pages devoted to its political passage, but of course, for all the worst reasons!
The summation is short on the one aspect that seems to be a serious weakness of not only A.N.Wilson but all analysis of post-WW2 G.B. - - whilst he correctly deduces that PM Gordon Brown has "sent Britannia packing" - - there is in this reviewer's opinion a complete lack of recognition and realisation that England and more especially the English have been marginalised over the course of the last 30 to 40 years by their own Westminster Parliament's persuit of a 'devolved' UK and the accompanying political courtship of the EUropean Union. Throughout the book A.N.Wilson fails to address the ramifications of the largest Union Nation's population being put-aside by their Political masters (and, Punk allusions not withstanding, he does not see the significance of Thatcher's appeal was to English feelings of social-cultural disconnection).
Another weakness: The 'Green revolution' barely enters the pages (Global Warming, p406) and yet has been 1 of the 3 pre-eminent international topics involving the UK for the last 4 decades -- surely every bit as important for Britons as 'War on Terror' and 'Retreat from Socialism' - - it is given scant regard under any heading.
As he gets nearer the present day unsurprisingly the narrative assessment weakens. PM Blair is seen as "Tony's Wars" which plainly does not correlate to his success as a British Politician winning 3 General Elections. It is a part of the book's general discomfort with finding the views of the British and in particular the English Electorate not conforming to what political intellectuals would have us believe is the reality: So, Tony's Wars are perceived as being incredibly unpopular, but Blair still won office in No.10! A.N.Wilson tries, e.g he repeats the story of Blair & Dubya Bush praying together at the Texas ranch and the implications of such behaviour, but never attempts a similar accounting of why the British Public still returned the man for a 3rd term with a majority of 62.
It is written entirely from a right-of-centre perspective, but to be fair is littered with aspersions against Conservative-Labour-NewLabour and the also-rans, i.e. ScotNat, PlaidCymru etc.: A thought-provoking book if only for the lack of sympathy and imagination about the People/Citizens that are at the core of its subject!