Table of Contents

Author's Note Maps and Plans Part I - Beginnings 1. 'That Terrible Place' 2. The Confessor and his Marvel 3. 'Two Nations in the Womb' 4. Norman Rule and Resistance Part II - Making The Royal Capital 5. An Unlikely Founding Father 6. Seat of Government 7. 'The Most Glorious Work in England' 8. Parliament 9. Edward and the Stone of Destiny 10. From Charing Cross to St Stephen's 11. Chaucer's Westminster 12. Raising the Roof 13. Sanctity and Sanctuary Part III - Revolutionaries 14. A New Era 15. Whitehall Palace 16. End of the Old Order 17. The Shape of Things to Come 18. A Tale of Two Sisters 19. Holy Terror 20. Scandal and Splendour 21. Killing the King 22. Republicans and Restorers 23. Fire and Flight Part IV - New Political Capital 24. Cockpit of Power 25. The Prime Minister 26. Georgian Icons 27. Mobs and Scribblers 28. Pitt's Village 29. From Bad Debts to High Hopes 30. Village at War 31. Assassination 32. Royal Farce 33. Reform 34. Fire! Part V - Global Icon 35. Victorian Phoenix 36. Golden Age 37. Dynamite 38. Pomp and Circumstance 39. War and Peace 40. Bitter Fruit 41. Finest Hour 42. Masters and Modernisers 43. New Wine in Old Battles Notes Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

A biography of Britain's centre of power and royal ceremony.

About the Author

Robert Shepherd is an award-winning radio and television producer based at Westminster, an author of political biographies and histories, and a former special adviser in Whitehall. His 'fly on the wall' documentary about the Foreign Office for Channel 4's Dispatches won Europe's Prix Stendhal. He also produced What Has Become Of Us, Channel 4's series on post-war Britain, Straight Talk with Andrew Neil for BBC News and Radio 4's The Prime Ministers.

Reviews

Almost too much history for a single mind to absorb has happened above the sand and gravel of Thorney Island. Yet, in Robert Shepherd, a very fine mind has sifted the archaeological, institutional, political and human débris with such skill and clarity that the rest of us can absorb this abundant Wesminster "biography" with pleasure and instruction. As someone who works in the great gothic Palace which rests upon that history-soaked reef, I shall never look upon my patch in the same way again.
*Professor the Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield FBA*

This is the sort of scintillating book that I would want to write, had I the wit or half the wisdom.
*Michael Dobbs (Lord Dobbs of Wylye)*

Shepherd combines intense scholarship with gentle humour. He has the penetrating faculty of describing each tree while never losing sight of the wood.
*Matthew Parris, Times columnist, BBC broadcaster and former MP*

[Shepherd] has written an entertaining life of the village that spins on its own axis.
*The Spectator*

Well researched ... the book is at its best [when the] narrative is leavened with surprising anecdotes.
*The Sunday Times*

Westminster has developed a most distinct personality since its birth as a swampy Bronze Age island, and Shepherd explains, describes and charts it with great scholarship, of course, but with a smile and a quizzical eyebrow. I love learning how little I knew.
*The Spectator*

A fascinating account of the development of a religious, royal and Parliamentary village
*House Magazine*

A remarkable story of the heart of Westminster, the birthplace of parliamentary government and a cockpit of power for a thousand years. Both instructive and entertaining.
*The Good Book Guide*