Paperback
Weapon of war to cultural icon: The BBC’s monumental, untold story.

The BBC

A People's History

$33.48

  • Paperback

    656 pages

  • Release Date

    10 January 2023

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Summary

‘A dramatic tale of innovation and determination’ - Guardian

In 1922, a tiny group of men and women came together to found the BBC, using what had been a weapon of war - Marconi’s wireless - to remake culture for the good of humanity.

Twenty years later, when George Orwell famously quit the Corporation, he decided he was done ‘doing work that produces no result’. Yet the BBC is now one of Britain’s most beloved institutions. Stars once fainted at the microphone; now a…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781781255261
ISBN-10:1781255261
Author:David Hendy
Publisher:Profile Books Ltd
Imprint:Profile Books Ltd
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:656
Release Date:10 January 2023
Weight:440g
Dimensions:44mm x 130mm x 198mm
A-Format
B-Format
The BBC by David Hendy - ISBN: 9781781255261
130 × 198 mm
C-Format
A4
mm / in
What They're Saying

Critics Review

‘An impassioned defence [of] a national institution’ - Dominic Sandbrook

‘A tale of creative endeavour and technological innovation, beset by a constant tension between leading and following the audience’ - FT

‘Sympathetic but never uncritical, a masterpiece of lucid presentation … this is the authoritative, much-needed history of the BBC’s first century - a century at the heart of British everyday life. I hope it does its bit to counter the vandals’ - David Kynaston, historian and Visiting Professor at Kingston University

‘A superb account … David Hendy stages a cast of brilliant and sometimes flawed characters in a page-turning narrative. Quite simply wonderful’ - Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford

‘A dramatic tale of innovation and determination … at the dawning of what would turn out to be this country’s biggest and most significant cultural institution’ - Andrew Anthony

About The Author

David Hendy

David Hendy is a writer, broadcaster and Emeritus Professor of Media and Cultural History at the University of Sussex. His books include Life on Air: A History of Radio Four, which won the Longmans-History Today Book of the Year Award and was nominated for the Orwell Prize.

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