The Great British Dream Factory

To put it simply, no country on earth, relative to its size, has contributed more to the modern imagination. There is, however, one area in which we can claim superpower status: our popular culture.

Britain has been in gradual decline since 1945. With the Empire gone along with our manufacturing base, we have compensated by engaging the energy and ingenuity that made the Victorians great to the creative arts. This is a book about the considerable success and the possible 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. We've exported them lucratively around the world.

Sandbrook has a knack of restating hardly original ideas in a way that strikes you as if you'd never heard them before. Heartily recommended.

I thought that this book would be brilliant. I thought that it would be a treasure for the lovers of ALL THINGS BRITISH, like yours trully. Yeeeees...not quite...next time I'll take a moment to think again. I gave up at 40% annoyed and frustrated to the high heavens!

I don't know what the writer wanted to achieve. Was it a book about the history of British culture? Was it a chance to reminisce of the golden days? Was it simply to make fun- no, to ridicule- the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Heavy Metal, J.K. Rowling, the Queen (the band, not the sovereign who seems to be the only one escaping his ‘‘critic talons). Whatever his intentions were, he produced an utter failure. Chapters packed with information unrelated to his themes, although I failed to see what the themes were. Poor attempts to appear light-hearted and full of humour. Sarcasm with a good dose of unashamed elitism towards the cultural offerings that A) were not to his liking, or B) that were the products of other countries. Verbose style used to support his personal opinions, more like prejudices really. Downright racist comments over the origins of John Lennon or Mick Jagger or the members of Black Sabbath, sexist remarks regarding J.K. Rowling and other women artists. These are not the elements that should consist an adequate book about the British culture. The part of the world that helped in shaping so many images in so many expressions of Art deserves a much better account that this poorly executed, chauvinistic, full of prejudices creation.