This was a really interesting book on the social history of the Edwardian era. I knew very little about this period and it was fascinating to learn about the culture and attitudes pre World War I. The narrator was a great choice and read the text with enthusiasm.

I really enjoy this look at a period of our history that I don’t know much about. The Edwardian Era seems to get brushed over when we look back at important events in our past.
This book manages to pack a lot of information in without being overwhelming, keeping it interesting and fun.
A great social and political history covering everything from musical halls, minstrel shows, royal family, the suffrage movement, crime, sporting events, wars and political upheaval.

A really interesting and enjoyable book.

This is an engaging and enjoyable account of the cultural life of the Edwardian Era - not from the perspective of a highbrow cultural expert, but from a more average person’s viewpoint. So, music hall performers play a big role, as do the more tabloid kind of talking points, like: anxiety about the state of the nation, Boer War jingoism, concerns about gender, immigration, invasion literature, serial killers, and the politics of old age pensions, the growing assertiveness of the unions, trouble in Northern Ireland, and political scandals. That choice of perspective makes it stand out against rival histories of the period by Roy Hattersley and Simon Heffer.

Turner doesn’t champion this middle-brow culture so much as document it thoughtfully and give it voice – without any of the typical attitude that it is inferior stuff, For example, literature plays a big role but it is the popular literature of some familiar authors like Kipling, Wells, Bennett, and Conan Doyle, but also less familiar names like Le Queux, Guy Boothby, Rex Stout, and the prolific author of the Billy Bunter stories. Near the end we learn how European modernist music and art was received in Britain and it is clear that it had no purchase on the popular imagination and was all too easily categorised as disruptive in a bad way. This is not a new observation, but the richness of Turner's account of that popular imagination makes it feel new.

This is the entertaining formula that the author has already employed in his successful studies of the cultural history of the decades from the 1970s to the present day. The author’s skill lies in identifying a kind cultural imaginary that tied together the preoccupations of the age. The level of background research is high and he is constantly ferreting out interesting bits of detail, but it is always readable and enjoyable.

In all this it is similar to how Dominic Sandbrook works – it occasionally overlaps with his The Great British Dream Factory. And for Audible listeners that connection is continued by an excellent reader, Matt Bates, who follows Sandbrook’s superb narrator, David Thorpe. His reading makes the spoken version an additional pleasure.

Little Englanders is a history of the Edwardian age, the start of the 20th century in Britain, and is a hugely interesting and entertaining study of an era we often tend to overlook. There is an emphasis on social history as a way of reflecting how people experienced the time - music halls acts and songs crop up frequently as a barometer of how people see events, the growth of new papers such as the Daily Mail and its immediate success, all of these are fascinating glimpses alongside more traditional coverage of the politics of the time. Many of the concerns people feel are familiar to us today - new technology, immigration, social welfare and unrest to name a few - and it's both interesting and worrying to see where all these things led 100 years ago. There's a great deal of research in the book but it's all written at a very lively pace and very entertaining (I listened to the audio version and the narration was also excellent). Hugely enjoyable.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

This non-fiction offered what I had hoped for, namely, the panorama of the years between Queen Victoria's death and the outbreak of WW1 focusing on social history, ordinary people, and with a limited dive into politics. A wide range of topics is covered, from musicals, attitudes towards so-called aliens (even my hometown is mentioned as the birthplace of one of the immigrants) to suffragettes' strife, and many, many more. The book focuses on ordinary men and women instead of aristocracy or upper-class, which is what gives it the feel of the period as little Englanders made Great Britain. I believe this book is a perfect choice for anyone who would like to receive insight into those days without knowing about them too much.
*A big thank-you to Alwyn Turner, Profile Books Audio, and NetGalley for a free audiobook in exchange for my honest review.*

It’s books like Little Englanders that make social history accessible to everyone. The Edwardian era tends to be overshadowed by the Victorian era. However, in my view it was a time of significant social and political change which has resonated through the decades that followed. The changes brought by the Industrial Revolution and a singular long reigning female monarch were matched by many developments during her son Edward’s short reign. There was an appetite for change following the death of the Queen and Alwyn Turner explores many pivotal events in detail.

I found the section on the Boer War very interesting. It’s a conflict I never fully understood, but he explains the dissent and how each of the different factions ended up placing their allegiances one way or another. It was refreshing to note that the the author comments on the fact that It was the British who introduced concentration camps and scorched earth policy during these wars. That’s a fact frequently airbrushed out of history so I liked the honesty.

It was an imp period for women and suffrage is detailed. The consequences of that and the First World War resulted in the most significant social upheaval ever experienced as the class system started to crumble. This is a title I’ve been riveted to over a number of days. Meticulously researched and so well written, it’s a title I’ll listen to again. Narration throughout is superb. Perfectly paced and well balanced delivery. My understanding of the Edwardians has improved and in the most enjoyable way. If you enjoy anything written by David Kynadton, you’re likely to love this.

I love social history books and this one is a very good one as it analyse the different aspect of the social life during the Edwardian time. From entertainment to sports the different aspects of the society are described and the author did an excellent job in making this history book entertaining and intriguing.
Well written and researched, I appreciated the storytelling and the voice of the narrator
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine