The King is Dead, Long Live the King!

Majesty, Mourning and Modernity in Edwardian Britain

By: Martin Williams

Narrated by: Martin Williams

The rich and fascinating story of the events surrounding the year 1910 when King Edward VII died, sending shockwaves through Britain and changing the country forever.

Unforgettable as it was, the public response to the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 was not without precedent. When her great-grandfather King Edward VII - glamorous, cosmopolitan and extraordinarily popular - died in May 1910, the political, social and cultural anxieties of a nation in turmoil were temporarily set aside during a summer of intense and ritualised mourning.

In The King Is Dead, Long Live the King! Martin Williams charts a period of tension and transition as one era slipped away and another took shape. Witnessed by a diverse but interconnected cast of characters - crowned heads and Cabinet ministers, debutantes and suffragettes, artists and murderers - here is the swansong of Edwardian Britain. Set against a backdrop of bereavement and parliamentary crisis overshadowed by the gathering clouds of war, we see a people caught between past and future, tradition and modernity, as they unite to bid farewell to a much-loved monarch who had personified his age.

From Buckingham Palace to Bloomsbury, and from the lying-in-state in Westminster Hall to a now legendary Royal Ascot enveloped in black, this is a vivid evocation of a world on the brink of seismic upheaval.

©2023 Martin Williams (P)2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Interesting period of history

Interesting period of history. The author provides a lot of detail and insight that adds context to the details most recently seen in Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.

Fascinating deep dive into Edwardian England

This book is a terrific deep dive into the transition from Edwardian England to the more modern day. Listening to the book in the year after the death of Queen Elizabeth II gave added resonance to how the monarchy (no matter what you think of it) perpetuates itself through rituals and traditions. Though the author is not a professional book reader, I appreciated his reading, which improved over the course of the book. Well worth a listen!

Excellent memoir or a time of change!!

Loved this book- beautifully read by the author evoking the end of one world and the beginnings
Of the birth of another…

Verbose and Lispy

It’s painfully verbose and lispy. Not worth the time or money. I strongly do not recommend.