Author

Ed West Audiobooks

1066 and Before All That: English history at a gallop, and good company

1 audiobook reviewed
★ 4.3/5 average
633 listener ratings

Main genres

Classics & Heritage

Author series

A Very, Very Short History of England · 1 book

Who is Ed West?

History written to be enjoyed is a harder trick than history written to be respected, and 1066 and Before All That is plainly aiming at the former. The title tips its hand immediately: this is popular history with its sleeves rolled up.

Ed West appears in our catalogue through the A Very, Very Short History of England sequence, a framing that promises brevity and then honours it. Classics and heritage is the natural shelf for the book, though nothing about the writing suggests dust.

Ed West in audiobooks

Five and a half hours is exactly the pace the title implies, with Steven Crossley narrating. Several hundred listeners have rated it well, which in popular history usually means the storytelling is carrying the dates rather than the other way round.

Come for the Norman Conquest and stay for everything that made it possible; the title makes no secret of how much of the book takes place before that famous year. A good doorway into English history for anyone who bounced off it at school. The audiobooks below are ready when you are.