Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
They Saw It Happen cover art

They Saw It Happen

By: Compiled by Matthew Lewin
Narrated by: Tim Pigott-Smith, Teresa Gallagher, Tom George
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Editor reviews

In a unique approach to understanding our past, Naxos has combined the eyewitness accounts of 60 people into a fascinating chimera of historical events, ranging from coronations to executions, that took place between 480 B.C.E. and 1945 C.E. Using a pleasant sprinkling of light classical music, British narrators take the parts of the storytellers - sometimes with appropriate foreign accents - weaving their diverse accounts into an integrated presentation by narrator Tim Pigott-Smith. Whether you're with Charles Lindbergh looking for the Paris airport at night or Samuel Pepys watching the Great Fire of London, your fantasies will travel through time and space in a whirlwind of memorable episodes.

Summary

Here are more than 60 eyewitness accounts of notable historical events beginning with the Spartans at Thermopylae in 480 BC through to and including the Bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Hear of the Black Death of the 1340s, the 1666 Great Fire of London, the Boston Tea Party in 1773, the 1793 Execution of Louis XVI, the Death of Vice Admiral Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the American Civil War (1861-1865), and San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake which killed thousands of people and injured hundreds of thousands more.

Meet Marie Antoinette, Stanley & Livingstone, Charles Lindbergh, and others. And there are also snapshots of more ordinary life, no less memorable for all that, including working conditions during the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and early 1800s, views of slaves and their owners, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903; one of the leading French painters of the post-Impressionist period), who chose a bride on Tahiti, and the 1910 arrest and death of Dr. Crippen. It is a fascinatingly unique and absorbing collection, bringing the past alive as only direct memories like these can do.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2003 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. (P)2003 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
  • Original Recording Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"In a unique approach to understanding our past, Naxos has combined the eyewitness accounts of 60 people into a fascinating chimera of historical events....Whether you're with Charles Lindbergh looking for the Paris airport at night or Samuel Pepys watching the Great Fire of London, your fantasies will travel through time and space in a whirlwind of memorable episodes." ( AudioFile)

More from the same

What listeners say about They Saw It Happen

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting

This recording consists of eyewitness accounts of historical events. I found it to be a good listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!