Eminent Elizabethans
Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher & Mick Jagger
Published on 5. September 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-09-953263-7 (ISBN)
Description
What links Margaret Thatcher, Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles and Mick Jagger?
Each have illuminated our Elizabethan age in their own, inimitable, way.
Margaret Thatcher - the first female Prime Minister, who dedicated herself with messianic zeal to breaking the mould of post-war British politics
Rupert Murdoch - the billionaire media mogul whose empire, built on an ethical void, has polluted the channels of communication from London to Sydney, from New York to New Guinea
Prince Charles - the royal dilettante whose erratic exploits shook the throne and put his own succession to it at risk
Mick Jagger - lead singer of the Rolling Stones, who embodied the sixties counter-culture of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll yet aspired to be a gentleman and accepted a knighthood at the behest of Tony Blair.
The sequel to Brendon's bestselling Eminent Edwardians, Eminent Elizabethans is written in the same witty, ironic and irreverent style and reveals how each one played out a major theme in the new Elizabethan medley. Each portrait vividly and vitally captured through pungent anecdote, piquant quotation and mordant commentary. In short, these brilliant miniatures are as entertaining as they are illuminating.
'Excellent' Guardian
'Entirely refreshing' Daily Mail
'A delight' Daily Express
Each have illuminated our Elizabethan age in their own, inimitable, way.
Margaret Thatcher - the first female Prime Minister, who dedicated herself with messianic zeal to breaking the mould of post-war British politics
Rupert Murdoch - the billionaire media mogul whose empire, built on an ethical void, has polluted the channels of communication from London to Sydney, from New York to New Guinea
Prince Charles - the royal dilettante whose erratic exploits shook the throne and put his own succession to it at risk
Mick Jagger - lead singer of the Rolling Stones, who embodied the sixties counter-culture of sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll yet aspired to be a gentleman and accepted a knighthood at the behest of Tony Blair.
The sequel to Brendon's bestselling Eminent Edwardians, Eminent Elizabethans is written in the same witty, ironic and irreverent style and reveals how each one played out a major theme in the new Elizabethan medley. Each portrait vividly and vitally captured through pungent anecdote, piquant quotation and mordant commentary. In short, these brilliant miniatures are as entertaining as they are illuminating.
'Excellent' Guardian
'Entirely refreshing' Daily Mail
'A delight' Daily Express
Reviews / Votes
A delight for connoisseurs of irreverence (4 stars) -- Christopher Silvester * Daily Express * The book abounds with funny stories...there are three or four juicy details on every page (4 stars) -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday * Excellent... By bringing a real historian's discipline to the task, Brendon has unearthed lots of new material, including the first logged double entendre by Margaret "will this gun jerk me off?" Thatcher - -- Simon Hoggart * Guardian * He possesses a sharp eye for illuminating detail and for his subjects' contradictions... Often he is as funny as he is viperfish... If there is plenty of acidity here, there is also fairness -- John Preston * Sunday Telegraph * Entirely refreshing... Steers well clear of reverence... It's all merrily contentious stuff - and Brendon wears his mask of criticism well -- Bel Mooney * Daily Mail * Brendon's great skill lies not just in telling funny stories, but in puncturing his subjects' vision of themselves -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times * [A] triumph of brevity and wit -- Mary Crockett * Scotsman * Pacy, even racy, prose -- Donald Trelford * Literary Review * The spirit of our age, as captured in the lives of four prominent figures * Sunday Times * Brendon is faced with an excess of material and his challenge is to select from the sea of online and biographical information just enough detail to give us the quintessence of his subjects. An excellent writer, he manages more than this, giving the reader not simply a taste of each figure but their full flavor... His genius is to resurrect the anecdote... A relentless routine of gags, related in Brendon's rapid, incisive prose (5 stars) -- Frances Wilson * Daily Telegraph *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
385 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-953263-7 (9780099532637)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
09/2012
1st Edition
Vintage Digital
€9.49
Available for download
Person
Piers Brendon is the author of more than a dozen books, including biographies of Churchill and Eisenhower, the best-selling Eminent Edwardians and The Dark Valley, and, most recently, the highly acclaimed The Decline and Fall of the British Empire. He also writes for television and contributes frequently to the national press. Formerly Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre, he is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.