Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting
The Face of Britain by Simon Schama
  Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

The Face of Britain

The Nation through Its Portraits
Due to publisher restrictions, this audiobook is unavailable for purchase in your selected country.
Length 14 hours 21 minutes
Language English
Narrators Roy McMillan & Simon Schama

This audiobook uses AI narration.

Weโ€™re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
  Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

Summary

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of The Face of Britain by Simon Schma, read by Simon Schama and Roy McMillian.

Churchill and his painter locked in a struggle of stares and glares; Gainsborough watching his daughters run after a butterfly; a naked John Lennon five hours before his death.

Simon Schama has written a tour de force about British portraits over the centuries in which the image-maker, the subject and everyone else looking on are brought unforgettably to life. Mesmerising in its extraordinary storytelling, and beautifully illustrated, The Face of Britain will change the way we see our past -- and ourselves.

Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

Reviews

Schama's greatest gift is a sure eye for an extraordinary story...This isn't what you get from conventional historians or conventional art writers, more's the pity...Schama has written books which will still be bought and talked about a century from now and he hasn't lost an ounce of zest or intelligence. Damn him... He knows the history, the biography, and the art history...he made me look and learn. He is a great storyteller and we learn something new on every page. All of these lives rendered with an acuity of detail that could rival the best of portraitists ... describing Lawrence's portrait of Wilberforce, Schama calls the painting a work of "transforming empathy". That phrase could be true of his storytelling throughout this book. Schama has a masterly ability to conjure up character and vivify conflict With Schama you look at a picture and see it as you hadn't before Splendid, spirited, immensely enjoyable and wide-ranging Shows Schama at his best . . . as full of memorable incident as a Bellow novel and wittier than a Woody Allen movie Schama writes with grace and wit, and his enthusiasms are contagious Dazzling, beyond praise Expand reviews
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting