Britain's War

Volume 1, Into Battle, 1937-1941

By: Daniel Todman

Narrated by: Ric Jerrom

The most terrible emergency in Britain's history, the Second World War, required an unprecedented national effort. An exhausted country had to fight an unexpectedly long war and found itself much diminished amongst the victors.

The outcome of the war was nonetheless a triumph, not least for a political system that proved well adapted to the demands of a total conflict and for a population who had to make many sacrifices but who were spared most of the horrors experienced in the rest of Europe.

Britain's War is a narrative of these epic events, an analysis of the myriad factors that shaped military success and failure, and an explanation of what the war tells us about the history of modern Britain. As compelling on the major military events as he is on the experience of ordinary people living through exceptional times, Todman suffuses his extraordinary book with a vivid sense of a struggle which left nobody unchanged - and explores why, despite terror, separation and deprivation, Britons were overwhelmingly willing to pay the price of victory.

This audiobook begins with the coronation of George VI and ends with the disasters in the Far East in December 1941. A second audiobook will tell the story from 1942 to Indian independence in 1947.

©2016 Daniel Todman (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Engaging and detailed war history

It seems that most accounts that try to embrace the entirety of world war 2 end up being too broad and thus unfocused, or too detailed and thus tedious. To borrow a thought from goldilocks 'This one is just right'. By focusing on Britain role in the war the book is given a central theme and is able to maintain a good pace without getting bogged down. At times the narrative focuses to give a 'day by day' account of proceedings and at other times it leaps to important events, but at all times it maintains a sense of coherence and is entertaining and informative. It provides a multitude of perspectives, strategic, economic, political and personal and weaves them together like a finely conducted symphony. This is not a strictly military history, but seeks to give a broader perspective to the events of the war. It stays away from the cliche'd version of britain's war and avoids the hagiography that tends to surround accounts of Churchill while still giving a respectful and clear eyed account of his role in the war. I though the book was masterfully read by the narrator, with the narrator switching effortlessly between accents and verbal affectations, thus adding a great deal of interest to the reading.Heartily recommended.

Excellent performance and book

I thought this book was excellent and I'm ready to get into the second volume straight away. The broad perspective starting as early as it does is excellent for setting the stage for how the war changes British society and politics. I honestly bought the book expecting a battle by battle recount of the war on the British side because that sort of thing makes for good listening at work but I was pleasantly surprised to find how much more it goes into. I know far more about British wartime society now than I did before.

The narrator was also excellent. I can't speak to if the different voices he does are accurate but they do add a lot of texture and make it easy to remember who's being quoted. Very good. Recommend this to anybody.

Fascinating

A very interesting picture of Britain’s immediate pre-war and early war on many levels. Well researched with interesting portraits of Britons both famous and hitherto unknown.
The narrator does something that I usually find irking: he does “voices’. However, he does them well,
EXCEPT for a rather crude and almost burlesque imitation of Winston Churchill. We all know what WSC actually sounded like and every time he does his Churchill schtick it grates on the ear and is totally unnecessary.

Slow start excellent history

This gets off to a slow start with a lot of facts and figures early on but stick with it, this is a comprehensive and accurate historical record that is well worth the effort.

I enjoyed the talented narration

The narrator did a masterful job with his re- creations of speeches and quotes

Great Performance, Biased with out a warning!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes it is a good story but not to the ignorant.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Either drop the socialist revisionism or let the reader know ahead of time. Either way the book would be immeasurably improved.

What about Ric Jerrom’s performance did you like?

He did a great "American" accent I loved it alot. Additionally his ability to inflec his voice to betray the intention of the author is great.

Any additional comments?

Overall a nice read especially if you are playing a WW2 game. But it committed the cardinal sin of not being upfront with the biases of the author.

Not the war.

Don’t buy this one unless you are deeply into British politics during ww2. That’s all the main body of the book is.