Strangeland, Jon Sopel
Strangeland, Jon Sopel
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Strangeland
How Britain Stopped Making Sense

Author: Jon Sopel

Narrator: Jon Sopel

Unabridged: 8 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ebury Digital

Published: 09/26/2024


Synopsis

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

© Jon Sopel 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mel on October 03, 2024

God, I love Jon Sopel. After binging all his previous books about his time reporting on Trump, I wasn't sure if this one would live up to my expectations. But this turns out to be one of the best and most entertaining analyses I've read on the changes to British politics and society during the last......more

Goodreads review by Conor on December 21, 2024

Good to feel conversant in all the key centrist dad talking points ahead of their emergence at the Christmas dinner table......more

Goodreads review by Markod0101 on October 08, 2024

Listened to the audiobook. I love John Sopel and am an avid listener of The News Agents. While I enjoyed the book, I was slightly disappointed it was more of a retelling of the crazy last decade than Sopels personal critique of it. With this in mind I can see it being more insightful as it ages.......more

Goodreads review by Sam on October 17, 2024

A year ago, I didn’t have a clue who John Sopel was. Now, post The News Agents Podcast and this highly entertaining book, I think I’m going to say he is my favourite political commentator (in British Politics).    This book (one of many I’m told, but haven’t bothered to Google) is a really fun, warm-......more

Goodreads review by John on June 18, 2025

Bought on a whim when visiting Meadowhall returning from a holiday. An easy and informative read highlighting the changes in politics over the last decade or so. There has been a decline in trust of politicians and traditional media, particularly the BBC, no doubt encouraged by people with sometimes,......more