Books by Simon Heffer

Masterly.' - CHARLES VYVYAN, STANDPOINT 'Fascinating stuff.' - SPECTATOR 'Possibly the finest, most comprehensive analysis of the home front in the Great War ever produced.' - LITERARY REVIEW 'Every bit as good as its two predecessors.

Britain in the 1840s was a country wracked by poverty, unrest and uncertainty, where there were attempts to assassinate the Queen and her prime minister, and the ruling class lived in fear of riot and revolution. This book offers an exploration of the making of the Victorian age and the Victorian mind.

This is a tweedy purveyor of folklore; too many larks ascending and too much. "e;Linden Lea"e;: no composer's work has ever been more cruelly stereotyped than that of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The truth could hardly have been more different: that folksy feel masked the highest sophistication, that countrified air the most audacious experimentation. If, unlike his Germanizing contemporary Elgar, Vaughan Williams did indeed open the way to a distinctively English Music, his was an Englishness which owed nothing to narrow-mindedness or lack of artistic enterprise. Fifty years after his death in 1958, Vaughan Williams' reputation is greater than ever before and there is a resurgence of interest in his music. Re-issued to coincide with this anniversary, Simon Heffer's perceptive book lends weight to the increasingly compelling case for Vaughan Williams' recognition as the most important English composer of the twentieth century. "e;A vivid and appealing picture of an irresistibly likeable figure...I enjoyed this little book enormously"e;. ("e;Spectator"e;). "e;An affectionate, accurate and shrewd account of Vaughan Williams' life ...the author's astute commentary on it betokens close and knowledgeable acquaintance"e;. ("e;Sunday Telegraph"e;).

Taking a panoramic view from the days of Thucydides up to the present, Heffer analyses the motive forces behind the pursuit of power, and, explains in a beautiful argument why history is destined to repeat itself.

Makes an impassioned case for an end to the sloppiness that has become such a hallmark of everyday speech and writing. This title shows how accuracy and clarity are within the grasp of anyone who is prepared to take the time to master a few simple rules.

A stirring anthology of speeches from every period of British history.