Strangeland cover art

Strangeland

How Britain Stopped Making Sense

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Strangeland

By: Jon Sopel
Narrated by: Jon Sopel
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

From Jon Sopel, bestselling author and presenter of hit podcast The News Agents, comes an incisive examination of post-Brexit Britain and what it means for our future.

Returning to the UK in some ways has been disconcerting – or maybe discombobulating would be a better word. It is, after all, my home; it is where I grew up, a country I love and am proud of. But either it’s changed, or I have. Maybe both.
It just feels like a strange land.

At the beginning of 2022, after eight years of political reporting in the US, Jon Sopel returned home to the UK – and having spent almost a third of his career abroad, he found a very different place to the one he left. In Strangeland, his first book since launching the global hit podcast The News Agents, he asks: What is the Britain he’s come home to?

In the US, Jon was the outsider looking in, firm in the belief that the common language of English masked our fundamental differences; in terms of values and beliefs, it seemed the British had much more in common with our European neighbours.

Strangeland is Jon’s account of how much that has changed. The US was a country he thought he knew well but didn’t really; returning home has been in some ways even more disconcerting – either Britain, the country he grew up in, has changed dramatically, or he has. Perhaps it’s both.

A trenchant analysis of politics, people, and everything in between, Strangeland is an unforgettable portrait of a country gone through the looking glass.

'I like and trust Jon Sopel and you should too' - Joe Lycett
'A hugely entertaining and quite traumatic rollercoaster' - Armando Iannucci
'A thrilling, nerve-wracking book. You couldn't make the last ten years up; thanks to Jon Sopel, you don't have to' - Peter Frankopan
'Acute and unflinching - Sopel deploys his foreign correspondent skills on home shores as well as far ones, and brings together the story of a tumultuous few years on both sides of the Atlantic' - Mishal Husain

©2024 Jon Sopel (P)2024 Penguin Audio
Great Britain Politics & Government Social Sciences
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Coming Storm cover art
UnPresidented cover art
A Year at the Circus cover art
Four Chancellors and a Funeral cover art
Taken as Red cover art
Depraved New World cover art
All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class cover art
Keir Starmer cover art
Out cover art
The Decade in Tory cover art
Trump in Exile cover art
The Forever War cover art
How to Be Right cover art
Blue Murder cover art
How They Broke Britain cover art
Unhinged: A Parody cover art

What listeners say about Strangeland

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    85
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    85
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    76
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

It was informative, engaging and interesting. Bought on Thursday and finished by Sunday. 100% recommended

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

A pure joy to listen to this magnificent piece of journalism. Well done to John Sopel on a great book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Didn’t want it to end!

Jon has such a truthful and real voice on the events both here and in the US over the past few years. His frankness and openness about his love and fear for our country is refreshing and nuanced

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Really good, interesting and thoughtful. I think Jon gave some well-balanced and carefully worded arguments on highly contentious issues. The book seemed to me very slightly scattergun in the sense that there was no clear A->B argument being made, more a meander through the mess we're in. But that's not a criticism, it was an enjoyable and enlightening meander, and I recommend it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

Another great Jon Sopel book. Loved his previous titles. If you to liked the previous titles, you will enjoy this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Nothing I haven't heard before

I can't say this is bad by any means but a lot of it is a recap of parts we have heard numerous times on the newsagents podcast with a few interesting anecdotes, my main complaint is that there's too much America and Trump rather than Britain given the "How Britain stopped making sense" title.

I can highly recommend if your a much less regular listener to the podcast but for a political junkie like me it was a bit unexciting overall.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Strangelands?

As much a narrative of recent US politics as the situation in the UK but still well written and enjoyable.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Lived through these times

What a great read. Jon’s assessment and recall of events is spot on. Excellent narrowation too.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Powerful Searchlight Delivering Clarity Through the Fog of Modern (Populist) Politics

We have all lived the drip, drip, drip of modern populist politics and it’s easy so easy to forget, not forgive, the layers upon layers of lies and deceits. Jon uses his outsider’s view to shine a light through the fog of alternative facts, shambling and boosterism to take stock of a decade from the perspective of viewing his, obviously much loved, country from afar and up close as he returns home.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

Informed commentary of every interesting politics topic of the last decade. Was disappointed when I got to the end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!