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Martin Johnes is Reader in History at Swansea University, UK. He is the author of Wales since 1939 (2012), A History of Sport in Wales (2005) and Aberfan: Government and Disasters (2000)[A] wide-ranging survey of our festive past ... There are many intriguing little examples of how Christmas was different in the past.
Book of the Day, The Guardian
Full of intriguing fragments ... [and] perceptive on the inherent nostalgia of the celebrations … [Johnes’s] sources are various and doubtless impeccable.
Times Literary Supplement
This enjoyable academic study of how the British observe Christmas in the modern era (specifically, 1914–2014) begins with the famous truce on the Western Front on Christmas, 1914. That heartwarming episode sets the tone for a generally positive account of the observance of Christmas in Britain. Johnes (history, Swansea Univ., UK) uses an impressive range of primary and secondary sources to illustrate his story.
CHOICE
Critique: A seminal work of original scholarship, "Christmas and the British: A Modern History" is impressively informed and informative. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Christmas and the British" is enhanced with the inclusion of fifty-six pages of Notes, a fourteen-page Annotated Bibliography of Academic Writing about Christmas, and a nine page Index. While very highly recommended for both community and academic library collections, it should be noted for students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Christmas and the British" is also available in a paperback edition (9781474255370, $29.95) and in a Kindle format ($13.19).
Midwest Book Review
A superb piece of social history, full of fascinating detail, that casts new light not just on Christmas, but on the country itself.
Alwyn Turner, author of A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s
It proves very hard to resist Martin Johnes’ energy and enthusiasm. Both virtues shine out of a book which most ably introduces the subject and can be read with profit by students and scholars—and by a broader public.
Twentieth Century British History
Martin Johnes’s <i>Christmas and the British</i> is a fascinating, vivid and beautifully researched history. Drawing on an enormous range of material, from Mass Observation to <i>Jackie</i> annuals, it tells a story of social and cultural change through our changing relationship with this festival. While never losing its scholarly bearings, it also manages to be full of warmth and human interest.
Joe Moran, Liverpool John Moores University, UK