Audiobooks Narrated by Philip Collins

Start Again: How We Can Fix Our Broken Politics

By The Times columnist and acclaimed author of When They Go Low, We Go High. Start Again is a life-raft for all those who find themselves politically adrift and a rallying cry for a better kind of politics - As heard on the Today programme Britain is today divided old against young, class against class, region against region, nativist against cosmopolitan, rich against poor and London against the rest. Our country is divided by generation, by education, by place and by attitude. Politics needs to be turned off and started again. In this time of tumult, when Britain is wrestling with the question of what sort of nation it wishes to be, its politics is stuck. Power is hoarded by a distant and unresponsive centre and our two largest political parties have both been captured by those on their outer edges. Too many of us have been left politically homeless. In Start Again, Philip Collins, Times journalist and until recently a lifelong Labour voter, offers a road map to a different political destination. Drawing on lessons from history Collins proposes new answers to today's most urgent questions: questions of education, work, health, housing, security, nationhood, and of how we can achieve a better future. Hopeful, indignant and inspirational, this is a book for anyone who feels that politics no longer speaks to them.

Philip Collins (Author), Philip Collins (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free

When They Go Low, We Go High

When First Lady Michelle Obama approached the podium at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, nobody could have predicted that her rousing and emotional “When they go low, we go high” speech would go on to become the motto for the political left and an anthem for opponents of oppression worldwide. It was a speech with the kind of emotional pull rarely heard these days, joining a long list of addresses that have made history. But what about Obama’s speech made it so great? When They Go Low, We Go High explores the most notable speeches in history, analyzing the rhetorical tricks to uncover how the right speech at the right time can profoundly shape the world. Traveling across continents and centuries, political speechwriter Philip Collins reveals what Thomas Jefferson owes to Cicero and Pericles, who really gave the Gettysburg Address, and what Elizabeth I shares with Winston Churchill. In telling the story of great and sometimes infamous speeches—including those from Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., Disraeli, Hitler, Elie Wiesel, Margaret Thatcher, and Barack and Michelle Obama—Collins breathes new life into words you thought you knew well, telling the story of democracy. Whether it’s the inaugural addresses of presidents or the revolutionary writings of Castro, Pankhurst, and Mandela, Collins illuminates and contextualizes these moments with sensitivity and humor. When They Go Low, We Go High is a strong defense of the power of public speaking to propagate and protect democracy and an urgent reminder that when great men and women speak to us, their words can change the world.

Philip Collins (Author), Ben Onwukwe, Eric Meyers, Helen Keeley, Philip Collins (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free