Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Westminster Alice
    The Westminster Alice
    The Westminster Alice
    Audiobook55 minutes

    The Westminster Alice

    Written by Saki

    Narrated by LibriVox Community

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook


    Published five years before John Kendrick Bangs had the same idea with Alice in Blunderland, Saki, in his 1902 series of satirical articles, takes an Alice in Wonderland view of British politics, which Alice finds even stranger than events in Wonderland.

    In all honesty, owing to its extremely topical nature this political satire hasn't worn well, which explains why it has virtually sunk without trace. To appreciate it at all, it's really rather necessary to understand the topical references. I am no historian, least of all a political historian, but I have researched it as well as I can, and made some notes in an attempt to put the events and characters into their political context for the listener. My notes may be found on the Internet Archive in audio form or in text form.

    I hope that this may still appeal to the political sceptic of today. With some basic understanding of the situation, I found the satire bitingly keen at points, and was left with the feeling that some aspects of British politics have changed little in more than a century, although current political satire sadly lacks Saki's wit. As the Red Queen says: "I don't know what business you have here, if you don't belong to the Cabinet; of course... there are so many of them, and they're mostly so unimportant that one can't be expected to remember all their faces." (Introduction by Ruth Golding)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLibriVox
    Release dateAug 25, 2014
    Author

    Saki

    Saki (1870-1916) was the pen name of British novelist and short story writer Hector Hugh Munro. Born in British Burma, Munro was the son of Inspector General Charles Augustus Munro of the Indian Imperial Police and his wife Mary Frances Mercer. Following his mother’s death from a tragic accident in 1872, Munro was sent to live in England with his paternal grandmother. In 1893, he returned to Burma to work for the Indian Imperial Police but was forced to resign in just over a year due to serious illness. He moved to London in 1896 to pursue a career as a writer. He found some success as a journalist and soon published The Rise of the Russian Empire (1900), a work of history. Emboldened, he began writing stories and novels, earning praise for Reginald (1904), a short story collection, and When William Came (1913), an invasion novel. Known for his keen wit and satirical outlook on Edwardian life, Munro was considered a master literary craftsman in his time. A gay man, he was forced to conceal his sexual identity in order to avoid criminal prosecution. At 43 years of age, he enlisted in the British cavalry and went to France to fight in the Great War. He was killed by a German sniper at the Battle of the Ancre.

    More audiobooks from Saki

    Related to The Westminster Alice

    Related audiobooks

    Satire For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Treetips NOW WHAT?

      Oct 31, 2023

      Q My great-great-grandfather (b. 1850 in Alabama) joined a local militia in 1865. I know that he received a pension, but I can’t find anything on his service. Any ideas? A Your ancestor’s pension (like all Confederate pensions) would have been issued

      2 min read

    • Article

      Story Of A City

      Apr 9, 2023

      Story Of A City
      3 min read

    • Article

      Temperance report, 1875

      Dec 14, 2021

      Temperance report, 1875
      3 min read

    • Article

      1936 Lynchburg, Va., Half Dollar

      Jun 11, 2021

      When people scratch their heads over commemorative half dollars of 1936, one of the coins they are probably thinking about is the Lynchburg, Va., Sesquicentennial half dollar. Now before getting the nasty cards and emails, I have absolutely nothing a

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Well Of The Scribes Resurfaces

      Jan 7, 2020

      The Well Of The Scribes Resurfaces
      3 min read

    • Article

      New Light Shed on Mysterious Past of 1913 Liberty Head Nickel PART I

      Sep 18, 2020

      Editor’s Note: This is the first part of a two-part feature detailing newly uncovered information on the first showing of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel and the coin’s subsequent rise to the status of a million-dollar rarity. On July 11, 1934, 63 memb

      13 min read

    • Article

      Welcome!

      Jul 17, 2020

      When I first read Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island some 25 years ago, it had a profound effect on the way I thought about Britain. Written by the American author as he made a lap of honour before returning home, his outsider perspective remind

      1 min read

    • Article

      Barbershop Quartet

      Mar 1, 2021

      Barbershop Quartet
      1 min read

    • Article

      A Capable Woman

      Mar 9, 2021

      A Capable Woman
      2 min read

    • Article

      Search for 1913 Liberty Head Nickels a ‘Futile Fad’

      Sep 1, 2023

      “Of all the fads to grip America, probably the most futile was the search for 1913 Liberty nickels,” wrote Clint McGirr in “Futile Fad” for the November 1964 Coins magazine. “It’s [sic] grip was so widespread in the 1920’s and 1930’s that there’s har

      5 min read

    • Article

      Review of ‘A Guide Book of Lincoln Cents,’ 3rd Edition

      Apr 13, 2020

      Here’s yet another book that recently tumbled from Q. David Bowers’ pen: A Guide Book of Lincoln Cents, 3rd Edition. I don’t know about you, but I started collecting Lincoln cents almost as soon as I became a coin collector, and that was more than 65

      4 min read

    • Article

      Call Attention

      Aug 19, 2022

      I wasn’t at all sure about using that picture of the crashed RAS Dakota in the July ‘Comment’ as it was only peripherally related to railways. However, I had already written a ‘Comment’ about railway coastal shipping services so it did not seem too b

      4 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Dec 14, 2021

      Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Most eminent Victorian

      Oct 18, 2023

      Most eminent Victorian
      4 min read

    • Article

      Tracing ‘The Most Buried Man In The World’: John Paul Jones, Scotland And The Us

      Oct 7, 2023

      ‘Do you know who he is?’ I asked the middle-aged man standing in front of the statue of John Paul Jones, one ofWashington DC’s many monuments and memorials built to convey American national self-confidence. Not far from us on the National Mall stood

      6 min read

    • Article

      Between The Acts

      Mar 29, 2018

      Between The Acts
      5 min read

    • Article

      Inspiring Walter Scott

      Aug 14, 2021

      Inspiring Walter Scott
      6 min read

    • Article

      Coot Hill

      Aug 10, 2023

      Coot Hill
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Westminster Alice

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words