London

Condensing eight hundred pages and several hundred centuries into four tapes leads inevitably to a loss of detail, but the listener of this abridgment isn't left wanting. The book itself is crammed with the trivia of history, from the time of the Druids to the last decade of the twentieth century. Even with this condensed form, the listener is held spellbound. Prebble's British accents range from royal to cockney, and his narration is peppered with various Celtic brogues, all distinguishing a complex cast of characters and cameo appearances by the likes of Chaucer and Shakespeare. Rutherfurd is a master storyteller, and the quality of his craft is in no way diminished through abridgment. B.L.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

April 28, 1997
Like his aesthetic mentor, James Michener, Rutherfurd (Russka; Sarum) takes readers from primordial days to the present; here he focuses on the last 2000 years of humanity on the island kingdom as manifested through the fortunes of seven families and one ancient, ever-evolving city. Such chapter headings as "The Tower," "Hampton Court" and "The Globe" reveal Rutherfurd's primary technique--to create verbal dioramas that, alas, too often feel as static and didactic as museum displays. Rutherfurd lavishes his greatest attention on the minor figures in English history rather than the greats. Instead of Shakespeare there is Edmund Meredith, playwright of the middling The Blackamoor; instead of Christopher Wren, there is a cowardly, anti-papist woodcarver; and there is Isaac Fleming, creator of the wedding cake. Due to the sheer scope of Rutherfurd's vision, many signal events, such as the Black Death, are afforded only a glancing nod, while the first and final chapters read more like a mannerly BBC documentary than a proper setup for a legend on a grand scale. Rutherfurd's workmanlike narrative ultimately buckles under the weight of its own vast scale, yet readers will savor individual tidbits like the snapshot of young Geoffrey Chaucer saving an abandoned baby. Readers with imagination may even come away with the sense that great cities aren't just places but living beings with hearts and souls. Major ad/promo; BOMC main selection; simultaneous Random House audio; author tour.