Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress - Hardcover

Morris, James.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 015139900X ISBN 13: 9780151399000

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974

Synopsis

The Pax Britannica trilogy is Jan Morris's epic story of the British Empire from the accession of Queen Victoria to the death of Winston Churchill. It is a towering achievement: informative, accessible, entertaining and written with all her usual bravura. Heaven's Command, the first volume, takes us from the crowning of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The story moves effortlessly across the world, from the English shores to Fiji, Zululand, the Canadian prairies and beyond. Totally gripping history! Here, it is presented in a comfortable 6 CD abridgement which retains the main elements of the tale.

About this title

Review

Roy McMillan narrates this sprawling history of the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 1897). Morris fills this study with small details and sweeping discussions of all the lands of the empire on which the sun never set. With warm, fluid tones, McMillan's voice takes the listener to small and large cities around the world. The material is organized around a series of vignettes that bring the period to life, and colorful descriptions capture one s attention. McMillan uses subtle modulations of voice when delivering direct quotations and interrupts his narration to include all the footnotes, which are digressions and authorial comments rather than explanations. Heaven's Command is the first of the three audiobook volumes in Morris's Pax Britannica. --AudioFile

Jan Morris's Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress is the first of her imperial trilogy, Pax Britannica. It isn't the newest history of the British Empire but it is easily the most readable, with a knack of including details that make us reflect on the present. Roy McMillan thoroughly enjoys narrating a story full of happy warriors and generous spirits that people the far-flung places once so flamboyantly pink with memorable characters, but shrewdly avoids rose-tinted spectacles. --Christina Hardyment, The Times

Published nearly 40 years ago, Jan Morris's Pax Britannica trilogy has never been equalled. This first volume of her biography of the British empire runs from Victoria's accession in 1837 to her Diamond Jubilee in 1897 taking in, besides much else, the Great Game, the Irish famine, the Indian Mutiny, the Jamaica Rebellion and the Scramble for Africa. Elegantly written, it is both delightful and consistently erudite, while Roy McMillan's reading glows with the same infectious passion for the subject as Jan Morris's own. --Rachel Redford, The Observer

About the Author

Jan Morris served as an intelligence officer with the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, studied at Oxford University, and was a reporter for the Times and the Guardian before launching into a successful career as a novelist, history author, and travel writer. Her other books include Last Letters from Hav, Fifty Years of Europe, Conundrum, Hong Kong, Oxford, The World of Venice, and Farewell the Trumpets.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
• Publication date: 1974
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 015139900X
• ISBN 13: 9780151399000
• Binding: Hardcover