Publisher, Naxos AudioBooks (August 2008)

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H. E. Marshall’s classic children’s chronicle of Britain Our Island Story includes all the best-loved (and most infamous!) stories from history: King Alfred and the cakes; King John and the Magna Carta; Lord Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar; Queen Elizabeth and the Spanish Armada; and many others. This box set contains the complete and unabridged text, released previously in separate volumes. It is read with aplomb by Anna Bentinck and Daniel Philpott.

Naxos’s recordings of H. E. Marshall’s Our Island Story is a jewel in the crown. Written at the height of Edwardian confidence in the British Empire, it tells the history of Britain from its beginnings to the death of Queen Victoria. This is exactly what children need to counter the disconnected history now taught in schools. Read by the dulcet Anna Bentinck and the noble-sounding David Philpott, with stirring music from Naxos’s library of recordings, each of the three volumes give a child five hours of fun. —Amanda Craig, Independent on Sunday

History has all the best stories, and all the best histories are more compelling heard aloud. The immediacy of H. E. Marshall’s Our Island Story turned several generations of twentieth century children into history addicts. Long-rubbished by the politically correct, it has just enjoyed a centenary renaissance in print, and could do even better as an unabridged audiobook as much for parents as children.

Here is the history that we grew up on: Boadicea and Caractacus standing up to the Romans, King Arthur and his Round Table, Alfred burning the cakes, Blondel seeking out Richard the Lionheart, the princes in the Tower, Guy Fawkes, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Wolfe at Quebec, Wellington at Waterloo, Florence Nightingale, the Black Hole of Calcutta and the relief of Mafeking. Some of the euphemisms will raise belly-laughs (the Romans “were rude to Boadicea’s daughters”) but there is much still to stir the spirit.

Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall admitted that it included fairytales as well as history, but she was wise about the value of legends and myths to a nation’s sense of itself. Narration is divided between Anna Bentinck and Daniel Philpott. —Christina Hardyment, The Times

About the Performer: Anna Bentinck trained at The Arts Educational School and has made over eight hundred broadcasts for BBC radio. Animation voices include the series 64 Zoo Lane, and on TV she has played Mary Dickens in Charles Dickens and Mary Rutherford in the Marie Curie series. Her many audio books range from Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman and A Little Death by Laura Wilson to Queen Victoria by Evelyn Anthony. She has also recorded Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet and Our Island Story for Naxos AudioBooks.

Daniel Philpott trained at LAMDA and, after success in the prestigious Carleton Hobbs Award for Radio Drama, has been prolific in BBC Radio and the Spoken Word industry. His theatre work includes numerous productions on the London fringe. For Naxos AudioBooks he has recorded A Life of Shakespeare, Famous People in History – 2, Dracula, Frankenstein, Pygmalion, and has narrated Our Island Story.