Masters of the Post: The Authorized History of the Royal Mail
Duncan Campbell-Smith
Masters of the Post: The Authorized History of the Royal Mail
This is the first complete history of the Royal Mail up to the present day, based on its comprehensive archives, and including the first detailed account of the past half-century of Britain's postal history, made possible by privileged access to confidential records. Today's debate over the future of the Royal Mail is shown to be just the latest chapter in a centuries-old conflict between its roles raising revenue and serving the public. Duncan Campbell-Smith brings to life many of the dominant personalities in the Royal Mail's history - from Rowland Hill, who imposed a uniform penny post and set the great Victorian expansion on its way, to Tony Benn who championed the modernisation of the service in the 1960s and Tom Jackson who led the postal workers' biggest union through fifteen frequently stormy years up to 1982.
4.0 out of 5 based on 4 reviews
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Omniscore:
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| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
History |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
880 |
| RRP |
£30.00 |
| Date of Publication |
November 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-1846143243 |
| Publisher |
Allen Lane |
| |
This is the first complete history of the Royal Mail up to the present day, based on its comprehensive archives, and including the first detailed account of the past half-century of Britain's postal history, made possible by privileged access to confidential records. Today's debate over the future of the Royal Mail is shown to be just the latest chapter in a centuries-old conflict between its roles raising revenue and serving the public. Duncan Campbell-Smith brings to life many of the dominant personalities in the Royal Mail's history - from Rowland Hill, who imposed a uniform penny post and set the great Victorian expansion on its way, to Tony Benn who championed the modernisation of the service in the 1960s and Tom Jackson who led the postal workers' biggest union through fifteen frequently stormy years up to 1982.
Reviews
The Guardian
Ian Jack
"This is a majestic account of a great institution's rise and fall. It doesn't close without hope: the author thinks the British postal service may have a modest, privatised future as a kind of co-op where users and staff hold the shares, trading on the British public's "abundant good will" towards the Royal Mail. It's hard to read his closing chapters, however, without being angered at the spectacular muddle and carelessness of recent British governments, which first bled a national asset dry and then poked the carcass with sticks."
26/11/2011
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The Sunday Telegraph
Sinclair McKay
"There might be a smidgen more about post-war union/management toing and froing than the casual reader would expect; and equally, a smidgen less about earlier times … But actually there are all sorts of eccentric delights that leap out of these pages … There is the genesis of Henry Coles’s rather catchy idea, in 1843, for a “greetings card” that people could send to one another at Christmas ... there was the toytown-sized London tube tunnel for the exclusive use of post trains ... And there is even a vivid retelling of the Great Train Robbery of 1963"
05/12/2011
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The Sunday Times
Nick Rennison
"[An] exhaustive, occasionally exhausting history … Some of the subjects Campbell-Smith is obliged to tackle (the search for the best way to create nationwide postcodes, or endless 1960s and 1970s discussions between union and management over pay and conditions) would defy the liveliest pen to make them fascinating, but he has written a solid, brilliantly researched and sometimes drily witty account of an institution once again in the throes of dramatic reinvention."
13/11/2011
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The Financial Times
Brian Groom
"At more than 800 pages, this is not one for people with short attention spans. There are some longueurs, involving arcane union negotiations and management reorganisations. But the history is dramatic and Duncan Campbell-Smith, a former FT and Economist journalist, has an eye for personality and anecdote that will appeal beyond the ranks of mail obsessives."
09/12/2011
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