Britain Alone

The Path from Suez to Brexit

By: Philip Stephens

Narrated by: Sean Barrett

A magisterial and profoundly perceptive survey of Britain's post-war role on the global stage, from Suez to Brexit.
'The fullest long-run political and diplomatic narrative yet of Britain's fateful, tragi-comic road to Brexit.'
DAVID KYNASTON
'An instant classic . . . Stephens is a master of historical codebreaking.'
PETER HENNESSEY
Award-winning Financial Times journalist Philip Stephens paints a fascinating portrait of sixty years - from Suez to Brexit - as Britain struggles to reconcile its waning power with its past glory. Drawing on decades of personal contact and interviews with senior politicians and diplomats in Britain, the United States and across the capitals of Europe, Britain Alone is a magisterial and deeply perceptive history of our nation and how we arrived at the state we are in.
'Commanding . . . Rarely if ever, in the history of the British state since 1707, has one half of Britain's ruling elite committed an act of policy viewed with such absolute contempt by the other half; and rarely has that contempt been expressed with such elegance, such fluency, and such a devastating wealth of supporting detail, as in this mighty survey.' SCOTSMAN
'Profoundly knowledgeable.' CHRIS PATTEN
'Compelling.' LAWRENCE FREEDMAN
'A fascinating history.' IRISH TIMES
'A magnificent, exhilarating book' PROSPECT

©2021 Philip Stephens (P)2021 Faber & Faber

UK voters *should* have been familiar with this material before BREXIT

Covers the English political and economic landscape over the last few decades. From Suez to Brexit is the tagline but it becomes difficult to disassociate much of the early period from the second world war and especially from the economic collapse of the British economy, caused in large part by the US insistence that Britain should dismantle her imperial trading relationships, largely so the US could leverage them for their own benefit.

Covers the split between a transatlantic leaning policy and a Europe centric policy. The irony of maintaining a massively expensive nuclear deterrent that is neither independent noe cost effective, purely for “prestige” while at the same time running down conventional naval, air defence and ground based forces is well covered.

The author is highly critical of recent leaders from Thatcher onwards and it does seem the dumbing down of the British political class has had increasingly adverse unintended consequences. In particular Blair and Cameron are both deservedly pilloried.

I still am at a loss how the English decided that going it alone could be preferable to an economic and political alliance with Europe and the author repeatedly points out that a Britain without influence is of no use whatsoever to her military masters in the USA.

Really well written, the events gibe with my own recollection of this time period, from the 1960’s onward. The author appears to have no axe to grind: in a sense that makes the content of this work more devastating. What is somewhat sad is that this material was well known to most people who were paying attention, how the UK got into the Brexit fix is a mystery. The mendacity of populism and weak leaders is covered superbly by the author.

The narration is clipped and at first seems almost too neutral however I feel the narrator did the material a service. Some accents were applied to quotations from the principals, there are not overdone and are subtle enough as to not impinge.

An utterly depressing, yet compelling and factual, description of lions led by donkeys.

The most articulate narrative on Britain’s contemporary history leading to Brexit

Just the most superbly researched and well-written story on Britain’s political and economic journey leading to Brexit. This is just what I needed to try to make sense of the political and economic events of the last few years.

narration is awful

story I great but the narration makes the book almost impossible to listen to