The Making of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr Pan, HK$117
Historians might be turned off by the knowledge that The Making of Modern Britain is a TV tie-in. But that doesn't mean the book should not be read. Written engagingly, with bolts of humour, Andrew Marr's volume, subtitled From Queen Victoria to VE Day, is a romp through 45 years, taking in the Edwardian age, 'one of the most interesting periods in all British history', the two world wars and the 1920s and 30s. Marr's interest lies in how an empire, which thrived on aristocratic privilege, became a welfare state. Divided into four parts (1900-1914; 1914-1918; 1919-1939 and 1939-1945), the book has a fluid style, which is a plus when it comes to anecdotes, many told with panache and nary a pause. At times, however, the go-with-the-flow technique encounters problems: some of his subjects are afforded more space than they deserve, for example minor historical figures such as the Mitford sisters, about whom Marr devotes an overly fat chunk of the book. Marr captures well the doubts the British had about how to live and what to believe before ideologies were trounced, he says, by consumerist materialism - that is, by shopping.
