The Edwardians: Biography of the Edwardian Age - Softcover

Roy Hattersley is a former deputy leader of the Labour Party and former Cabinet minister. He stood down as a Member of Parliament in 1997 and has been a member of the House of Lords. He has written biographies of Nelson, William and Catherine Booth, John Wesley, and a history of Britain since the First World War. He has also written three novels.

"There is a vacancy for the role in [British] culture of a senior politician who can write a proper history.... The main contender is...Roy Hattersley." ---The Sunday Times (London)

"This is well-judged narrative history, shrewd and stirring in equal measure.... Edwardian imagination, Edwardian true grit, and the sheer effort and ingenuity they put into being modern all receive acknowledgment in this rewarding book." ---David Trotter, The Guardian

"Roy Hattersley is now carving a niche as a master of popular history and biography.... Hattersley carries off his chapters with a magnificent swagger.... This splendid popular history will confirm Hattersley's status as one of the most interesting writer-politicians of our time." ---Daily Express

"This is a handsome book. Written with style, grace,and wit, it is informative and perceptive, and for the first time brings the whole history of Edwardian Britain into a single focus for the general reader. The task required an author of wide accomplishments, ranging from practical insight into politics, a historian's skills, and literary talent; and here it has abundantly found them." ---The Independent on Sunday

"Roy Hattersley, in his thorough and informative new history, gives the social whirl of the aristocracy its due. But he pays much more attention to what really mattered . . . a readable and very wide-ranging history, taking in everything Edwardian." ---The Daily Mail

"What makes this book is not just the quality of its social and political analysis, but the breadth of detail and the quality of its gossipy anecdotes . . . [a] fascinating book." ---The Glasgow Herald
"Intricate, self-assured and insightfully anecdotal account of British social and political history from 1901 to 1914... A convincing account of a watershed epoch, Hattersley's concise yet comprehensive history casts new light on a much-misunderstood era."---Publishers Weekly

"Intricate, self-assured and insightfully anecdotal account of British social and political history from 1901 to 1914... A convincing account of a watershed epoch, Hattersley's concise yet comprehensive history casts new light on a much-misunderstood era."---Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly)