{"title":"Books by Simon Heffer","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781804940983","title":"Sing As We Go","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘An epic new history . . . a work of epic scholarship, breathtaking range, and piercing originality’ \u003ci\u003eDaily Express\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘An astonishing achievement of narrative history . . . I think the word is \"magisterial\".’ \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Excellent, thorough, detailed and combatively argued.’ \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSing As We Go \u003c\/i\u003eis an astonishingly ambitious overview of the political, social and cultural history of the country from 1919 to 1939.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt explores and explains the politics of the period, and puts such moments of national turmoil as the General Strike of 1926 and the Abdication Crisis of 1936 under the microscope. It offers pen portraits of the era's most significant figures. It traces the changing face of Britain as cars made their first mass appearance, the suburbs sprawled, and radio and cinema became the means of mass entertainment. And it probes the deep divisions that split the nation: between the haves and have-nots, between warring ideological factions, and between those who promoted accommodation with fascism in Europe and those who bitterly opposed it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Magisterial . . . an extraordinary achievement.’ \u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘A masterful portrayal of political, social and cultural upheaval between the wars.’ \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44581226512562,"sku":"9781804940983","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781804940983_8d23841f-9157-45f8-ada1-5690c9230043.jpg?v=1786028482"},{"product_id":"9780099592242","title":"The Age of Decadence","description":"\u003cb\u003e‘A riveting account of the pre-First World War years . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Age of Decadence\u003c\/i\u003e is an enormously impressive and enjoyable read.’ Dominic Sandbrook, \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘A magnificent account of a less than magnificent epoch.’  Jonathan Meades, \u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe folk-memory of Britain in the years before the Great War is of a powerful, contented, orderly and thriving country. She commanded a vast empire. She bestrode international commerce. Her citizens were living longer, profiting from civil liberties their grandparents only dreamt of, and enjoying an expanding range of comforts and pastimes. The mood of pride and self-confidence is familiar from Elgar’s \u003ci\u003ePomp and Circumstance\u003c\/i\u003e marches, newsreels of George V’s coronation and the London’s great Edwardian palaces.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet things were very different below the surface. In \u003ci\u003eThe Age of Decadence\u003c\/i\u003e Simon Heffer exposes the contradictions of late-Victorian and Edwardian Britain. He explains how, despite the nation’s massive power, a mismanaged war against the Boers in South Africa created profound doubts about her imperial destiny. He shows how attempts to secure vital social reforms prompted the twentieth century’s gravest constitutional crisis and coincided with the worst industrial unrest in British history. He describes how politicians who conceded the vote to millions more men disregarded women so utterly that female suffragists’ public protest bordered on terrorism. He depicts a ruling class that fell prey to degeneracy and scandal. He analyses a national psyche that embraced the motor-car, the sensationalist press and the science fiction of H. G. Wells, but also the Arts and Crafts of William Morris and the nostalgia of A. E. Housman. And he concludes with the crisis that in the summer of 1914 threatened the existence of the United Kingdom – a looming civil war in Ireland.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe lights up the era through vivid pen-portraits of the great men and women of the day – including Gladstone, Parnell, Asquith and Churchill, but also Mrs Pankhurst, Beatrice Webb, Baden-Powell, Wilde and Shaw – creating a richly detailed panorama of a great power that, through both accident and arrogance, was forced to face potentially fatal challenges.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘A devastating critique of prewar Britain . . . disturbingly relevant to the world in which we live.’ Gerard DeGroot, \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘You won’t put it down . . . A really riveting read.’ Rana Mitter, BBC Radio 3 \u003ci\u003eFree Thinking\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223818613109,"sku":"9780099592242","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099592242_49ff5721-a74b-4f8e-9adb-c2172f40eff0.jpg?v=1786011572"},{"product_id":"9780099558477","title":"High Minds","description":"\u003cp\u003eSimon Heffer's new book forms an ambitious exploration of the making of the Victorian age and the Victorian mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBritain in the 1840s was a country wracked by poverty, unrest and uncertainty, where there were attempts to assassinate the Queen and her prime minister, and the ruling class lived in fear of riot and revolution. By the 1880s it was a confident nation of progress and prosperity, transformed not just by industrialisation but by new attitudes to politics, education, women and the working class. That it should have changed so radically was very largely the work of an astonishingly dynamic and high-minded group of people – politicians and philanthropists, writers and thinkers – who in a matter of decades fundamentally remade the country, its institutions and its mindset, and laid the foundations for modern society. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt traces the evolution of British democracy and shows how early laissez-faire attitudes to the lot of the less fortunate turned into campaigns to improve their lives and prospects. It analyses the birth of new attitudes to education, religion and science. And it shows how even such aesthetic issues as taste in architecture were swept in to broader debates about the direction that the country should take. In the process, Simon Heffer looks at the lives and deeds of major politicians, from the devout and principled Gladstone to the unscrupulous Disraeli; at the intellectual arguments that raged among writers and thinkers such as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, and Samuel Butler; and at the 'great projects' of the age, from the Great Exhibition to the Albert Memorial. Drawing heavily on previously unpublished documents, he offers a superbly nuanced insight into life in an extraordinary era, populated by extraordinary people – and how our forebears’ pursuit of perfection gave birth to modern Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56224179356021,"sku":"9780099558477","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099558477_0e9b4f98-3cc8-450e-8b4e-2d551405f68b.jpg?v=1786011832"},{"product_id":"9781529152791","title":"Scarcely English","description":"The English language has evolved throughout its history, and usually for good reasons. However, in recent years, egged on by social media and the ubiquity and velocity of the internet, it has been subject to some grave assaults. There appear no longer to be any rules, in an era when, thanks to the web (another word to have changed its meaning) everyone can be a published author, completely unedited and unregulated. This often has dire consequences for the English tongue.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSimon Heffer's A to Z runs though a whole litany of common confusions ('flaunt' and 'flout', 'imply' and 'infer', 'uninterested' and 'disinterested'), unidiomatic English ('fed up of', 'focus around', the use of 'impacted' in such construction as 'the loss impacted him badly'), and lazy expressions (these days every extended activity is an '-athon', every scandal is a 'Something-gate'). It bemoans some truly awful neologisms, 'infotainment' and 'funwashing' among them. And it registers the horror of those of us who do not believe that you can answer the question 'How are you?' with the words 'I'm good'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTrenchant and sprinkled with dry wit, \u003ci\u003eScarcely English\u003c\/i\u003e is both a chamber of horrors of bad and lazy English and a plea for accuracy, clear thinking and elegance.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685875589493,"sku":"9781804940136","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56302806237557,"sku":"9781529152791","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781804940136.jpg?v=1792599097"},{"product_id":"9781786090447","title":"Staring at God","description":"\u003cp\u003e'\u003cb\u003eA brilliant history: The first serious and really wide-ranging history of the Home Front during the Great War for decades. Scholarly, objective and extremely well-written.\u003c\/b\u003e Filled with surprising revelations and empathy. Heffer’s eye for the telling detail is evident on almost every page. \u003cb\u003eA remarkable intellectual and literary achievement.' \u003c\/b\u003e– ANDREW ROBERTS, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTELEGRAPH\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA major new work of history on the profound changes in British society during the First World War\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Great War saw millions of men volunteer for or be recruited into the Army, their lives either cut short or overturned. Women were bereaved, enlisted to work in agriculture, government and engineering, yet still expected to hold together homes and families. But while the conflict caused social, economic and political devastation, it also provoked revolutionary change on the home front.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSimon Heffer uses vivid portraits to present a nuanced picture of a pivotal era. While the Great War caused loss on an appalling scale, it also advanced the emancipation of women, brought notions of better health care and education, and pointed the way to a less deferential, more democratic future.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'\u003ci\u003eStaring at God\u003c\/i\u003e is a vast compendium of atrocious political conduct. Refreshing. \u003cb\u003eA trenchant history\u003c\/b\u003e.' – GERARD DE GROOT, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTHE TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003cb\u003eA magisterial history' \u003c\/b\u003e– MELANIE MCDONAGH, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDAILY MAIL\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘\u003cb\u003eGloriously rich and spirited\u003c\/b\u003e […] it zips along, leavened by so many wonderful cultural and social details.’ – DOMINIC SOUTHBROOK, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Ambitious in its scope, content and approach. \u003cb\u003eMasterly\u003c\/b\u003e.’ – CHARLES VYVYAN,\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e STANDPOINT\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Fascinating stuff.’ \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e– SPECTATOR\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘\u003cb\u003ePossibly the finest, most comprehensive analysis of the home front in the Great War ever produced\u003c\/b\u003e.’ – \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLITERARY REVIEW\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Every bit as good as its two predecessors. Illuminating.’ – \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEXPRESS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Absorbing’ –\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e NEW STATESMAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305719968117,"sku":"9781786090447","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781786090447_2dabc645-93b3-4f66-aaee-0056f8c1f404.jpg?v=1786025895"},{"product_id":"9781907903205","title":"A Short History of Power","description":"From Macaulay in the 19th century to Fukuyama in the late 20th, historians have often been lulled into thinking that things can only get better. Such belief in progress, argues leading political commentator Simon Heffer, may be typical of times of plenty, but it ignores a less palatable truth: that, since the beginnings of recorded history, the major events in international relations can be attributed to a single cause, the desire by rulers to assert or protect their power.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309053129077,"sku":"9781907903205","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781907903205_e72e40a3-4d1f-46a8-bd51-6aa898578819.jpg?v=1786029134"},{"product_id":"9780099537939","title":"Strictly English","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Be in no doubt: the beer was drunk but the man drank the beer.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"We must avoid vulgarities like 'front up'. If someone is 'fronting up' a television show, then he is presenting it.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSimon Heffer's incisive and amusingly despairing emails to colleagues at the \u003ci\u003eThe Daily\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eTelegraph\u003c\/i\u003e about grammatical mistakes and stylistic slips have attracted a growing band of ardent fans over recent years. Now, in his new book \u003ci\u003eStrictly English\u003c\/i\u003e, he makes an impassioned case for an end to the sloppiness that has become such a hallmark of everyday speech and writing, and shows how accuracy and clarity are within the grasp of anyone who is prepared to take the time to master a few simple rules.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you wince when you see \"different than\" in print, or are offended by people who think that \"infer\" and \"imply\" mean the same thing, then this book will provide reassurance that you are not alone. And if you believe that precise and elegant English really does matter, then it will prove required reading.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311553327477,"sku":"9780099537939","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099537939_768c944a-58b7-443a-8bb3-909c9a9832d5.jpg?v=1786011398"},{"product_id":"9780099558460","title":"Simply English","description":"In his best-selling \u003ci\u003eStrictly English\u003c\/i\u003e Simon Heffer explained how to write and speak our language well. In \u003ci\u003eSimply English\u003c\/i\u003e he offers an entertaining and supremely useful A–Z guide to frequent errors, common misunderstandings and stylistic howlers. What is the difference between \u003ci\u003eamend \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eemend\u003c\/i\u003e, between \u003ci\u003eimply \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003einfer\u003c\/i\u003e, and between \u003ci\u003euninterested \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003edisinterested\u003c\/i\u003e? When should one put \u003ci\u003eowing to\u003c\/i\u003e rather than \u003ci\u003edue to?\u003c\/i\u003e Why should the temptation to write \u003ci\u003eactually\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ebasically \u003c\/i\u003eor \u003ci\u003eat this moment in time\u003c\/i\u003e always be strenuously resisted? How does one use an apostrophe correctly, ensure that one understands what \u003ci\u003ealibi \u003c\/i\u003ereally means, and avoid the perils of the double negative?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith articles on everything from punctuation to tabloid English to adverbs and adjectives\u003ci\u003e, Simply English \u003c\/i\u003eis the essential companion for anyone who cares about the language and wants to use it correctly.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311554703733,"sku":"9780099558460","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099558460_2b69c6f4-6ef0-4c14-a9a7-b1e8e3a35cba.jpg?v=1786011831"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-simon-heffer.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}