
On a Pedestal
A Trip Around Britain's Statues
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Narrated by:
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Ben Onwukwe
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By:
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Roger Lytollis
About this listen
This is a book for people who are interested in statues...and for people who aren't. It explores those immortalised in marble and bronze - and what the rest of us think about them.
As Roger Lytollis travels Britain, he encounters a man at Liverpool's Beatles statue convinced that Rod Stewart was in the Fab Four. In Edinburgh, he walks into a row over Greyfriars Bobby's nose, and in Glasgow, learns why the duke of Wellington wears a traffic cone on his head. London brings a controversial nude statue and some hard truths about racism.
Elsewhere, Roger sees people dancing with Eric Morecambe, finds a statue being the backdrop to a marriage proposal and, everywhere he goes, pigeons. Always pigeons.
On a Pedestal is the first book to examine public statues around the nation. It looks at their emergence onto the front line of our culture wars; the trend for portraying musicians, sports stars and comedians rather than monarchs, politicians and generals; the inspirational stories of many of those commemorated on our streets, such as suffragettes and the only soldier awarded a Victoria Cross on D-Day.
The book features interviews with sculptors including Sir Antony Gormley, telling the stories behind some of our most popular modern statues.
Part history book, part travelogue, On a Pedestal discovers Britain through its statues. It's a book that, ultimately, is more about blood than bronze.
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