The Great British Dream Factory cover art

The Great British Dream Factory

The Strange History of Our National Imagination

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The Great British Dream Factory

By: Dominic Sandbrook
Narrated by: David Thorpe
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About this listen

Britain's empire has gone. Our manufacturing base is a shadow of its former self; the Royal Navy has been reduced to a skeleton. In military, diplomatic and economic terms, we no longer matter as we once did. And yet there is still one area in which we can legitimately claim superpower status: our popular culture.

It is extraordinary to think that one British writer, J. K. Rowling, has sold more than 400 million books; that Doctor Who is watched in almost every developed country in the world; that James Bond has been the central character in the longest-running film series in history; that The Lord of the Rings is the second best-selling novel ever written (behind only A Tale of Two Cities); that the Beatles are still the best-selling musical group of all time; and that only Shakespeare and the Bible have sold more books than Agatha Christie.

To put it simply, no country on Earth, relative to its size, has contributed more to the modern imagination. This is a book about the success and the meaning of Britain's modern popular culture, from Bond and the Beatles to heavy metal and Coronation Street, from the Angry Young Men to Harry Potter, from Damien Hirst to The X Factor.

©2016 Dominic Sandbrook (P)2016 Audible, Ltd 20th Century Art Europe Great Britain Modern Music Social Sciences England Entertainment
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I enjoyed the book-and thought that it contained interesting insights and thorough research. The tone is very knowledgeable. The overly long pieces on Billy Bunter etc started to lose me, and I couldn't help but think that the time could have been better used examaning something more interesting or contemporary. The Beatles were never really examined, saved for the hatchet job on Lennon. Could we have heard more about the Clash or British Reggae? And while there is a load on Island Records, that is a narrative about the triumph of the individual, (Chris Blackwell is it?), rather than that of the collective- I refer you to the Billy Elliot discourse, which the author on one hand is happy to critique and yet on the other is unable to seperate himself. Did Dominic go to a school where Biggles was pretty cutting edge, and nice boys didn't listen to rough music? I imagine he is around 97.

The narration was adequate but British people have to stop doing Australian accents. They are just being racist. If you want to impersonate Murdoch, then do so, but just don't think "generic Australian" does the job. No more than talking like Alexi Sayle is a Hugh Grant impersonation.

What, no punk?

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