Strangeland cover art

Strangeland

How Britain Stopped Making Sense

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Strangeland

By: Jon Sopel
Narrated by: Jon Sopel
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

From Jon Sopel, bestselling author and presenter of hit podcast The News Agents, comes an incisive examination of post-Brexit Britain and what it means for our future.

Returning to the UK in some ways has been disconcerting – or maybe discombobulating would be a better word. It is, after all, my home; it is where I grew up, a country I love and am proud of. But either it’s changed, or I have. Maybe both.
It just feels like a strange land.

At the beginning of 2022, after eight years of political reporting in the US, Jon Sopel returned home to the UK – and having spent almost a third of his career abroad, he found a very different place to the one he left. In Strangeland, his first book since launching the global hit podcast The News Agents, he asks: What is the Britain he’s come home to?

In the US, Jon was the outsider looking in, firm in the belief that the common language of English masked our fundamental differences; in terms of values and beliefs, it seemed the British had much more in common with our European neighbours.

Strangeland is Jon’s account of how much that has changed. The US was a country he thought he knew well but didn’t really; returning home has been in some ways even more disconcerting – either Britain, the country he grew up in, has changed dramatically, or he has. Perhaps it’s both.

A trenchant analysis of politics, people, and everything in between, Strangeland is an unforgettable portrait of a country gone through the looking glass.

'I like and trust Jon Sopel and you should too' - Joe Lycett
'A hugely entertaining and quite traumatic rollercoaster' - Armando Iannucci
'A thrilling, nerve-wracking book. You couldn't make the last ten years up; thanks to Jon Sopel, you don't have to' - Peter Frankopan
'Acute and unflinching - Sopel deploys his foreign correspondent skills on home shores as well as far ones, and brings together the story of a tumultuous few years on both sides of the Atlantic' - Mishal Husain

©2024 Jon Sopel (P)2024 Penguin Audio
Europe Great Britain Politics & Government Social Sciences Thought-Provoking United Kingdom

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All stars
Most relevant
We have all lived the drip, drip, drip of modern populist politics and it’s easy so easy to forget, not forgive, the layers upon layers of lies and deceits. Jon uses his outsider’s view to shine a light through the fog of alternative facts, shambling and boosterism to take stock of a decade from the perspective of viewing his, obviously much loved, country from afar and up close as he returns home.

A Powerful Searchlight Delivering Clarity Through the Fog of Modern (Populist) Politics

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This is an excellent discussion of political issues both here and in the USA, so topical now in 2025. Sopel, unfettered by BBC protocols can say what he really thinks… and he thinks some serious deep sense!

Brilliant exposition of current political climate

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Did not disappoint in any which way. I have been waiting for this for a long time now, first hearing about it on News Agents a while back
Full of fascinating information, authentic opinions and a few laugh out loud moments all delivered in the style we know and love from JS.
Absolutely chuffed with it!

Classic Sopes!

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Really good, interesting and thoughtful. I think Jon gave some well-balanced and carefully worded arguments on highly contentious issues. The book seemed to me very slightly scattergun in the sense that there was no clear A->B argument being made, more a meander through the mess we're in. But that's not a criticism, it was an enjoyable and enlightening meander, and I recommend it.

Excellent

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Excellent book. Gives you an understanding of powerful people and institutions. Doesn’t do my faith in politics any good. It’s a good listen for all those people who voted remain and voted for Boris. More than ever proud to be a remoaner, and proud not to have voted for Boris.

The truth for once

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