THE OFFICIAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN
An entertaining journey through a statistical history of the UK
Author Boris Starling with David Bradbury Publisher Harpercollins Price £14.99 Released Out now
If the words entertaining and statistics don’t seem like natural bedfellows, prepare to be surprised by The Official History Of Britain, whose mission statement is clearly set out in its wordy subtitle: Our story in numbers as told by the Office for National Statistics. For the last two centuries the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and its predecessors have surveyed the nation, carrying out the census and supplementary research to record the changing face of Great Britain.
The Official History Of Britain is a greatest hits of the ONS’ findings but it isn’t a dry list of stats and figures. Instead author Boris Starling analyses and interprets the data to chart the shaping of modern Britain, demonstrating how our social and cultural landscape have changed over two tumultuous centuries. It is sensibly structured into five sections, covering who we are, which roughly examines how families, households and ambitions have changed; what we do, or the evolution of the job market from the Industrial Revolution to the technologically-savvy modern era; before moving on to an examination of where we live, delving into the country as a whole and the impact of population density. It concludes with a look at the 1921 census, before flashing forward to predict how the
2021 census might look.
It won’t come as a surprise to learn that this book is absolutely packed with statistics courtesy of co-author David Bradbury, and Starling weaves them into a jaunty narrative. The Official History Of Britain isn’t a particularly slim book, but it is a very easy read and filled with illuminating nuggets of British history. It will be of particular interest to casual historians of Great Britain, and for aficionados of social history it will likely be a treasure trove. Even the casual reader with a passing interest will likely find plenty to enjoy. It’s a book that can be dipped into by anyone looking for a quick historical fix.
The Official History Of Britain isn’t just a look back at the past, though. Instead it’s as current as can be, particularly with its examination of the 1918-19 Spanish Flu pandemic versus the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Wisely, Starling doesn’t attempt to predict in any detail what the latter might mean for the future, leaving that to future historians. All of this is supported through the ONS statistics, which illustrate the text. If there is one negative, it’s that some of the visual material – charts, graphs and such like – is very small indeed. While this won’t be such an issue in an electronic format, some readers may struggle to make out the very small labels and annotations in the print edition.
Though thoroughly entertaining, this is also a surprisingly thoughtprovoking book and it’s fascinating to learn about the changing fortunes and makeup of the nation as families change, industries shrink while others expand, and the population diversifies. The Official History Of Britain will find readers across a broad spectrum, from keen local historians to devotees of statistics and the more casual fan of British history.