Interview with Michael Peel, author of What Everyone Knows About Britain* (*Except The British)
Michael Peel, author of What Everyone Knows About Britain* (*Except The British) recommends a fabulous flurry of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Michael's book:
Description from Bookshop.ord: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
What Everyone Knows About Britain* (*Except The British)
How do you see Britain? That might depend on your point of view, and as long time British foreign correspondent, Michael Peel has come to understand, it can look very different from outside.
It's tempting to think of the UK as a fundamentally stable and successful nation. But events of the past few years, from Brexit to exposés of imperial history, have begun to spark fierce public debates about whether that is true. Is Britain, just a marginal northern European island nation, marked by injustices, corruption and with a bloody history of slavery, repression and looting? And yet UK politics, media, and public opinion live constantly in the shadow of old myths, Second World War era nostalgia, and a belief in supposedly core British values of tolerance, decency and fair play. British politicians regularly exploit a damaging complacency that holds that everything will turn out okay, because, in Britain, it always does.
In WHAT EVERYONE KNOWS ABOUT BRITAIN, Michael Peel digs into the national consciousness with the perspective of distance to pull apart the ways in which we British have become unmoored from crucial truths about ourselves. He shows us that from many perspectives we are no different from other countries whose own national delusions have seen them succumb to abuses of power, increased poverty and divisive conflict.
The battle over Britain's narrative is the struggle for its future and its place in the world. So, how do we escape the trick mirror - and see ourselves as we really are?
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £19.00
Blackwells £15.00
Waterstones £17.99
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power by Daniel Yergin. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power by Daniel Yergin is a compelling account of the role of oil in many of the great economic and political battles of the twentieth century. It influenced my thinking when I was writing A Swamp Full of Dollars, my book about Nigeria as an emblem of the age of oil – and it has helped me understand other oil-rich states I’ve lived and worked in since.
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
The struggle for wealth and power that has surrounded oil for decades continues to shake the world economy, dictate the outcome of wars, and transform the destiny of men and nations. The Prizeis as much a history of the twentieth century as of the oil industry itself. The canvas of this history is enormous -- from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm. The cast extends from wildcatters and rogues to oil tycoons, and from Winston Churchill and Ibn Saud to George Bush and Saddam Hussein.
The definitive work on the subject of oil and a major contribution to understanding our century, The Prizeis a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement -- and great importance.
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £16.14
Bookshop.org US $23.25
Blackwells £11.99
Waterstones £16.99
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants by James Vincent. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Both Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement by James Vincent and Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane were excellent, for different reasons.
Beyond Measure is a brilliant tour through the history of measurement and how it is far more than a technical matter, but a phenomenon with sometimes profound economic, cultural and political dimensions.
Underland is an intense journey through the world’s underground spaces, from Parisian catacombs to Greenland glaciers. Most of us know little or nothing of these places, yet they often contain revealing reflections of our surface lives – and this beautifully written exploration of them expands the imagination.
Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants
We measure rainfall and radiation, the depths of space and the emptiness of atoms, calories and steps, happiness and pain. But how did measurement become ubiquitous in modern life? When did humanity first take up scales and rulers, and why does this practice hold authority over so many aspects of our lives?
Written with vim and dazzling intelligence, James Vincent provides a fresh and original perspective on human history as he tracks our long search for dependable truths in a chaotic universe. Full of mavericks and visionaries, adventure and the unexpected, Beyond Measure shows that measurement has not only made the world we live in, it has made us too.
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £12.34
Bookshop.org US $17.62
Blackwells £12.99
Waterstones £12.99
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
When I was very young, I loved Fantastic Mr Fox’s battles with Boggis, Bunce and Bean. When I was a bit older, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ captured the absurdities and anxieties of an early teen’s journey towards the adult world.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Mr Fox is a very clever fox - every evening he creeps down into the valley and helps himself to food from the nearby farms.
Chickens from Farmer Boggis, ducks and geese from Farmer Bunce, and turkeys from Farmer Bean.
But now the farmers have had enough, and together they hatch a plan to get rid of Mr Fox for good!
But what they don't know is Mr Fox has some help, and a fantastic escape plan of his own...
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £7.59
Bookshop.org US $7.43
Blackwells £7.99
Waterstones £5.99
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
I am a longstanding convert to e-books, due to portability, durability and readability as my eyesight worsens.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
Daunt Books
Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street offered a captivating window on the wider world when I moved to London and started in journalism.
Many thanks to Michael for recommending an fabulous flurry of books! Please don't forget to check out What Everyone Knows About Britain* (*Except The British).
Daryl
Image Copyrights: (What Everyone Knows About Britain* (*Except The British)), Simon & Schuster Ltd (The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power), Faber & Faber (Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art), Penguin Random House Children's UK (Fantastic Mr. Fox).
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