Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Perilous Question

  • The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832
  • By: Antonia Fraser
  • Narrated by: Sean Barrett
  • Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (27 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
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.
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.
Perilous Question cover art

Perilous Question

By: Antonia Fraser
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

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

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

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.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Killers of the King cover art
The Napoleonic Wars cover art
Dilke cover art
Friends Divided cover art
Adams cover art
John Quincy Adams cover art
Agony and Eloquence cover art
Henry VIII: The Quest for Fame cover art
Very Bad People cover art
William Wilberforce cover art
Inventing a Nation cover art
Common Sense cover art
Uproar! cover art
American Lion cover art
Churchill cover art
The Proud Tower cover art

Summary

Internationally best-selling historian Antonia Fraser's new audiobook brilliantly evokes one year of pre-Victorian political and social history - the passing of the Great Reform Bill of 1832. For our inconclusive times, there is an attractive resonance with 1832, with its ‘rotten boroughs’ of Old Sarum and the disappearing village of Dunwich, and its lines of most resistance to reform.

This audiobook is character-driven - on the one hand, the reforming heroes are the Whig aristocrats Lord Grey, Lord Althorp and Lord John Russell, and the Irish orator Daniel O'Connell. They included members of the richest and most landed Cabinet in history, yet they were determined to bring liberty, which whittled away their own power, to the country. The all-too-conservative opposition comprised Lord Londonderry, the Duke of Wellington, the intransigent Duchess of Kent and the consort of the Tory King William IV, Queen Adelaide. Finally, there were ‘revolutionaries’ and reformers, like William Cobbett, the author of ‘Rural Rides’.

This is a audiobook that features one eventful year, much of it violent. There were riots in Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham, and wider themes of Irish and ‘negro emancipation’ underscore the narrative. The time-span of the audiobook is from Wellington's intractable declaration in November 1830 that 'The beginning of reform is the beginning of revolution', to 7th June 1832, the date of the extremely reluctant royal assent by William IV to the Great Reform Bill, under the double threat of the creation of 60 new peers in the House of Lords and the threat of revolution throughout the country. These events led to a total change in the way Britain was governed, a two-year revolution that Antonia Fraser brings to vivid dramatic life.

Read by Sean Barrett. Sean Barrett has narrated many television documentaries for the BBC and Discovery Channel, notably The People’s Century, Walking With Beasts, and Great Lives. As a member of the BBC Radio Rep, he has appeared in hundreds of radio plays, and played Father Gillespie in the BBC Worldservice / BBC7 serial Westway throughout its eight year-run. As a film and television actor he has appeared in pieces as diverse as Twelfth Night and Father Ted, and he is a doyen of audiobook reading, with acclaimed recordings of authors ranging from Chaucer to Beckett and in 2012 recorded Antony Beevor's The Second World War.

Read by Sean Barrett. Sean Barrett has narrated many television documentaries for the BBC and Discovery Channel, notably The People's Century, Walking with Beasts, and Great Lives. As a member of the BBC Radio Rep, he has appeared in hundreds of radio plays, and played Father Gillespie in the BBC Worldservice / BBC7 serial Westway throughout its eight year-run. As a film and television actor he has appeared in pieces as diverse as Twelfth Night and Father Ted, and he is a doyen of audiobook reading, with acclaimed recordings of authors ranging from Chaucer to Beckett and in 2012 recorded Antony Beevor's The Second World War.

©2013 Lady Antonia Fraser (P)2013 Orion Publishing Group
  • Abridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Perilous Question

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

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

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

Pretty dull

I really wanted to find out about this great moment in England's history. I was disappointed. It was a dull plod through names and dates, rather like I was taught history many years ago

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

One of the many milestones in history.

Excellent book detailing one of the many milestones in British history. A really good read and audio 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
    5 out of 5 stars

Historically very significant

Where does Perilous Question rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Good

What other book might you compare Perilous Question to, and why?

?

Have you listened to any of Sean Barrett’s other performances? How does this one compare?

A good performance but I have not to my knowledge read another of his readings

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

no

Any additional comments?

no

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

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!