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Perilous Question : The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832

Internationally bestselling historian Antonia Fraser's book brilliantly evokes one year of pre-Victorian political and social history - the passing of the Great Reform Bill of 1832, an eventful and violent year that featured riots in Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham.

The time-span of the book is from Wellington's intractable declaration in November 1830 that 'The beginning of reform is beginning of revolution' to 7 June 1832, when William IV reluctantly assented to the Great Reform Bill, under the double threat of the creation of 60 new peers in the House of Lords and the threat of revolution throughout the country. Wider themes of Irish and 'negro emancipation' underscore the narrative.

The book is character driven; we learn of the Whig aristocrats prepared to whittle away their own power to bring liberty to the country, the all-too-conservative opposition who included the intransigent Duchess of Kent and Queen Adelaide and finally the 'revolutionaries' like William Cobbett, author of Rural Rides. These events led to a total change in the way Britain was governed, a two-year revolution that Antonia Fraser brings to vivid dramatic life.

"A writer whose command of sources, eye for detail, perception of character and shrewd judgment enable her to bring the past truthfully to life" ( Sunday Telegraph)

"Drama, betrayal, religion and sex, it's all here, adorned by often fascinating, at times esoteric detail" ( Guardian)

"Fraser brings to life the female stars circling the Sun King in an account that successfully combines erudition with gossipy stories of the kind the Versailles courtiers loved so much." ( Sunday Times)


Author:

  • Antonia Fraser

Narrator:

  • Mike Grady

Format:

  • Audiobook

Duration:

  • 11 h 43 min

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Nonfiction
  • History

More by Antonia Fraser

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  1. Mary Queen of Scots

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  2. Six Wives of Henry VIII

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  3. Lady Caroline Lamb : A Free Spirit

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  4. The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton and Her Fight for Women's Justice

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  5. The King and the Catholics : The Fight for Rights 1829

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  6. My History

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  7. Must You Go? : My Life with Harold Pinter

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  • 8 books

    Antonia Fraser

    Antonia Fraser is the author of many widely acclaimed historical works which have been international bestsellers. She was awarded the Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000 and was made a DBE in 2011 for services to literature. Her previous books include Mary Queen of Scots; King Charles II; The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England, which won the Wolfson History Prize; Marie Antoinette: The Journey; Perilous Question; The King and the Catholics; and The Wives of Henry VIII. Must You Go?, a memoir of her life with Harold Pinter, was published in 2010, and My History: A Memoir of Growing Up in 2015. Fraser's The Case of the Married Woman is available from Pegasus Books. She lives in London.

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