Jerusalem: England's National Anthem (Kindle Single)
Book Details
Author(s)David Boyle
PublisherEndeavour Press
ISBN / ASINB00SHPCRXI
ISBN-13978B00SHPCRX2
MarketplaceFrance 🇫🇷
Description
‘Jerusalem’ has become one of the best-known poems in the English language.
And, set to music, has become the unofficial English national anthem.
But what is the story behind its strange words?
And how did it come to strike such a powerful chord with the nation, uniting left and right, republicans and monarchists alike?
Penned in 1804 by the radical poet William Blake, as he sat in a cramped room near London’s Oxford Street, it is a call for personal struggle to transform England into the paradise it was somehow meant to be.
But Blake had no idea that these few stanzas would hold such national importance two hundred years on.
Over 100 years after Blake wrote it, ‘Jerusalem’ was rediscovered, and used to whip up patriotic fervour during the First World War.
As the battlefield losses mounted to a horrific scale in the early weeks of 1915, there was a desperate need to keep up national spirits.
It was sent to the composer, Sir Hubert Parry, who transformed it into a soaring song, designed to unite the nation.
Since then, it has been sung by socialists and conservatives alike, by patriots and feminists and dreamers, partly because the words are obscure enough to satisfy everybody, and partly because the tune is stirring enough to have emerged as an alternative national anthem.
'Jerusalem' is the compelling story of that song, and the men who created it.
David Boyle's work has been widely praised:
‘The tone of the book may be gloomy but there is plenty of entertainment value …’ Anne Ashworth, The Times
‘Exhilarating’ Daily Mail
‘He tells these stories, on the whole persuasively and with some startling asides.’ New Statesman
‘A book that is engagingly sensitive to the sentiments of what is sometimes called “middle Englandâ€â€™ Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times
David Boyle is a British author and journalist who writes mainly about history and new ideas in economics, money, business and culture. He lives in Crystal Palace, London. His books include ‘Alan Turing: Unlocking the Enigma’, ‘Peace on Earth: The Christmas Truce of 1914’, ‘Unheard Unseen: Warfare in the Dardanelles’, ‘Towards the Setting Sun: The Race for America’ and ‘The Age to Come’.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
And, set to music, has become the unofficial English national anthem.
But what is the story behind its strange words?
And how did it come to strike such a powerful chord with the nation, uniting left and right, republicans and monarchists alike?
Penned in 1804 by the radical poet William Blake, as he sat in a cramped room near London’s Oxford Street, it is a call for personal struggle to transform England into the paradise it was somehow meant to be.
But Blake had no idea that these few stanzas would hold such national importance two hundred years on.
Over 100 years after Blake wrote it, ‘Jerusalem’ was rediscovered, and used to whip up patriotic fervour during the First World War.
As the battlefield losses mounted to a horrific scale in the early weeks of 1915, there was a desperate need to keep up national spirits.
It was sent to the composer, Sir Hubert Parry, who transformed it into a soaring song, designed to unite the nation.
Since then, it has been sung by socialists and conservatives alike, by patriots and feminists and dreamers, partly because the words are obscure enough to satisfy everybody, and partly because the tune is stirring enough to have emerged as an alternative national anthem.
'Jerusalem' is the compelling story of that song, and the men who created it.
David Boyle's work has been widely praised:
‘The tone of the book may be gloomy but there is plenty of entertainment value …’ Anne Ashworth, The Times
‘Exhilarating’ Daily Mail
‘He tells these stories, on the whole persuasively and with some startling asides.’ New Statesman
‘A book that is engagingly sensitive to the sentiments of what is sometimes called “middle Englandâ€â€™ Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times
David Boyle is a British author and journalist who writes mainly about history and new ideas in economics, money, business and culture. He lives in Crystal Palace, London. His books include ‘Alan Turing: Unlocking the Enigma’, ‘Peace on Earth: The Christmas Truce of 1914’, ‘Unheard Unseen: Warfare in the Dardanelles’, ‘Towards the Setting Sun: The Race for America’ and ‘The Age to Come’.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
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