The Great British Dream Factory - Softcover

Sandbrook, Dominic

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141979305 ISBN 13: 9780141979304

Publisher: Penguin UK, 2016

Synopsis

A dazzling, entertaining, and revolutionary overview of British popular culture, based on a major four-part BBC2 series. Britain's empire has gone. Their manufacturing base is a shadow of its former self; the Royal Navy has been reduced to a skeleton. In military, diplomatic, and economic terms, they no longer matter as they once did. And yet there is still one area in which they can legitimately claim superpower status: their popular culture. It is extraordinary to think that one British writer, J. K. Rowling, has sold more than 400 million books; that Doctor Who is watched in almost every developed country in the world; that James Bond has been the central character in the longest-running film series in history; that The Lord of the Rings is the second best-selling novel ever written (behind only A Tale of Two Cities); that the Beatles are still the best-selling musical group of all time; and that only Shakespeare and the Bible have sold more books than Agatha Christie. To put it simply, no country on earth, relative to its size, has contributed more to the modern imagination. This is a book about the success and the meaning of Britain's modern popular culture, from Bond and the Beatles to heavy metal and Coronation Street, from the Angry Young Men to Harry Potter, from Damien Hirst to The X Factor.

About this title

About the Author:

Dominic Sandbrook is the author of Mad as Hell and Eugene McCarthy.

Language Notes:

Britain's empire has gone. Our manufacturing base is a shadow of its former self; the Royal Navy has been reduced to a skeleton. In military, diplomatic and economic terms, we no longer matter as we once did. And yet there is still one area in which we can legitimately claim superpower status: our popular culture.
It is extraordinary to think that one British writer, J. K. Rowling, has sold more than 400 million books; that Doctor Who is watched in almost every developed country in the world; that James Bond has been the central character in the longest-running film series in history; that The Lord of the Rings is the second best-selling novel ever written (behind only A Tale of Two Cities); that the Beatles are still the best-selling musical group of all time; and that only Shakespeare and the Bible have sold more books than Agatha Christie.
To put it simply, no country on Earth, relative to its size, has contributed more to the modern imagination. This is a book about the success and the meaning of Britain's modern popular culture, from Bond and the Beatles to heavy metal and Coronation Street, from the Angry Young Men to Harry Potter, from Damien Hirst to The X Factor.

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About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin UK
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0141979305
• ISBN 13: 9780141979304
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 688