Listen free for 30 days
-
Legacy
- One Family, a Cup of Tea and the Company That Took on the World
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Categories: History, Europe
People who bought this also bought...
-
The Cartiers
- The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire
- By: Francesca Cartier Brickell
- Narrated by: Hattie Morahan
- Length: 23 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Cartiers is the revealing tale of a jewelry dynasty - four generations, from revolutionary France to the 1970s. At its heart are the three Cartier brothers whose motto was "Never copy, only create" and who made their family firm internationally famous in the early days of the 20th century, thanks to their unique and complementary talents. Francesca Cartier Brickell, whose great-grandfather was the youngest of the brothers, has traveled the world researching her family’s history, discovering long-lost pieces of the puzzle along the way.
-
-
Fascinating historical account of a world brand.
- By Samantha pearmain on 03-07-20
-
Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitz
- By: Thomas Harding
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hanns Alexander was the son of a wealthy German family who fled Berlin for London in the 1930s. Rudolf Höss was a farmer and soldier who became Kommandant of Auschwitz and oversaw the deaths of over a million people. In the aftermath of World War II, the first British War Crimes Investigation Team is assembled to hunt down the senior Nazi officials responsible for the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen.
-
-
Moving, shocking and completely absorbing
- By James on 06-09-13
-
Kiss Myself Goodbye
- The Many Lives of Aunt Munca
- By: Ferdinand Mount
- Narrated by: Paul Blezard
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aunt Munca never told the truth about anything. Calling herself after the mouse in a Beatrix Potter story, she was already a figure of mystery during the childhood of her nephew Ferdinand Mount. Half a century later, a series of startling revelations sets him off on a tortuous quest to find out who this extraordinary millionairess really was. What he discovers is shocking and irretrievably sad, involving multiple deceptions, false identities and abandonments.
-
-
CONCENTRATE
- By gary l. on 19-01-21
-
The Sphinx
- The Life of Gladys Deacon - Duchess of Marlborough
- By: Hugo Vickers
- Narrated by: Hugo Vickers
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most beautiful and brilliant women of her time, Gladys Deacon dazzled as much as she puzzled the glittering social circles in which she moved. Born in Paris to American parents in 1881, she suffered a traumatic childhood after her father shot her mother's lover dead. Educated in America, she returned to Europe, where she captivated and inspired some of the greatest literary and artistic names of the Belle Époque.
-
-
disappointing with a lifeless narration
- By Lesley-Anne Thompson on 07-06-20
-
Blitz Spirit
- Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times
- By: Becky Brown
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong, Elliot Fitzpatrick, Alex Wingfield, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Becky Brown has selected extracts from the Mass Observation Archives to anthologise the voices of everyday people as they deal individually and collectively with the crisis of the Second World War. The diarists themselves have been selected from every level of society - from warehousemen to widows, soldiers to farmhands, WRENs to architects. The extracts have been chosen to both uplift and to ground, to remind listeners that nothing is new, that everything can be weathered and perhaps even made better. After all, World War II saw the birth of the NHS.
-
-
Disappointed
- By Gadgetfanatic on 14-10-20
-
The Grit in the Pearl
- The Scandalous Life of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll
- By: Lyndsy Spence
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Margaret, Duchess of Argyll (1912-1993) was an international celebrity in her youth. But in 1963, the year of the Profumo Affair, the 11th Duke of Argyll shocked the country when he alleged that his adulterous wife had slept with over 80 men behind his back. The duke won a divorce, and Margaret was abandoned by most of her friends. Lyndsy Spence tells a tragic story of the life and downfall of this fascinatingly complex woman, and shows how she fell victim to a cruel husband, harsh social mores, and an unforgiving class.
-
-
Narrator is sing song and drove me nuts..
- By OSAGE on 25-01-20
-
The Cartiers
- The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire
- By: Francesca Cartier Brickell
- Narrated by: Hattie Morahan
- Length: 23 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Cartiers is the revealing tale of a jewelry dynasty - four generations, from revolutionary France to the 1970s. At its heart are the three Cartier brothers whose motto was "Never copy, only create" and who made their family firm internationally famous in the early days of the 20th century, thanks to their unique and complementary talents. Francesca Cartier Brickell, whose great-grandfather was the youngest of the brothers, has traveled the world researching her family’s history, discovering long-lost pieces of the puzzle along the way.
-
-
Fascinating historical account of a world brand.
- By Samantha pearmain on 03-07-20
-
Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitz
- By: Thomas Harding
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hanns Alexander was the son of a wealthy German family who fled Berlin for London in the 1930s. Rudolf Höss was a farmer and soldier who became Kommandant of Auschwitz and oversaw the deaths of over a million people. In the aftermath of World War II, the first British War Crimes Investigation Team is assembled to hunt down the senior Nazi officials responsible for the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen.
-
-
Moving, shocking and completely absorbing
- By James on 06-09-13
-
Kiss Myself Goodbye
- The Many Lives of Aunt Munca
- By: Ferdinand Mount
- Narrated by: Paul Blezard
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aunt Munca never told the truth about anything. Calling herself after the mouse in a Beatrix Potter story, she was already a figure of mystery during the childhood of her nephew Ferdinand Mount. Half a century later, a series of startling revelations sets him off on a tortuous quest to find out who this extraordinary millionairess really was. What he discovers is shocking and irretrievably sad, involving multiple deceptions, false identities and abandonments.
-
-
CONCENTRATE
- By gary l. on 19-01-21
-
The Sphinx
- The Life of Gladys Deacon - Duchess of Marlborough
- By: Hugo Vickers
- Narrated by: Hugo Vickers
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most beautiful and brilliant women of her time, Gladys Deacon dazzled as much as she puzzled the glittering social circles in which she moved. Born in Paris to American parents in 1881, she suffered a traumatic childhood after her father shot her mother's lover dead. Educated in America, she returned to Europe, where she captivated and inspired some of the greatest literary and artistic names of the Belle Époque.
-
-
disappointing with a lifeless narration
- By Lesley-Anne Thompson on 07-06-20
-
Blitz Spirit
- Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times
- By: Becky Brown
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong, Elliot Fitzpatrick, Alex Wingfield, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Becky Brown has selected extracts from the Mass Observation Archives to anthologise the voices of everyday people as they deal individually and collectively with the crisis of the Second World War. The diarists themselves have been selected from every level of society - from warehousemen to widows, soldiers to farmhands, WRENs to architects. The extracts have been chosen to both uplift and to ground, to remind listeners that nothing is new, that everything can be weathered and perhaps even made better. After all, World War II saw the birth of the NHS.
-
-
Disappointed
- By Gadgetfanatic on 14-10-20
-
The Grit in the Pearl
- The Scandalous Life of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll
- By: Lyndsy Spence
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Margaret, Duchess of Argyll (1912-1993) was an international celebrity in her youth. But in 1963, the year of the Profumo Affair, the 11th Duke of Argyll shocked the country when he alleged that his adulterous wife had slept with over 80 men behind his back. The duke won a divorce, and Margaret was abandoned by most of her friends. Lyndsy Spence tells a tragic story of the life and downfall of this fascinatingly complex woman, and shows how she fell victim to a cruel husband, harsh social mores, and an unforgiving class.
-
-
Narrator is sing song and drove me nuts..
- By OSAGE on 25-01-20
-
The House by the Lake
- By: Thomas Harding
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding travelled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a house by a lake. It had been a holiday home for her family, that she had been forced to leave as the Nazis swept to power. As he began to piece together the lives of the five families who had lived, he realised that this house had witnessed violence, betrayals and murders, had withstood the trauma of a world war and the dividing of a nation.
-
-
A historical treasure
- By KittyB on 28-10-15
-
Chanel's Riviera
- The Côte d’Azur in Peace and War, 1930-1944
- By: Anne de Courcy
- Narrated by: Sophie Roberts
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Far from worrying about the onset of war, in the spring of 1938 the burning question on the French Riviera was whether one should curtsy to the Duchess of Windsor. Few of those who had settled there thought much about what was going on in the rest of Europe. It was a golden, glamorous life, far removed from politics or conflict.
-
-
More Riviera than Chanel
- By WhatCathyReadNext on 11-11-19
-
The Barbizon
- The New York Hotel That Set Women Free
- By: Paulina Bren
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to The Barbizon, New York's premier women-only hotel. Built in 1927, New York's Barbizon Hotel was first intended as a home for the 'Modern Woman' seeking a career in the arts. It became the place to stay for ambitious, independent women, who were lured by the promise of fame and good fortune. The Barbizon is a colourful, glamorous portrait of the lives of these young women, who came to New York looking for something more. It's a story of pushing the boundaries, of women's emancipation and of the generations of brilliant women who passed through its halls.
-
House of Glass
- The Story and Secrets of a 20th-Century Jewish Family
- By: Hadley Freeman
- Narrated by: Hadley Freeman
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After her grandmother died, Hadley Freeman travelled to her apartment to try and make sense of a woman she’d never really known. Sala Glass was a European expat in America – defiantly clinging to her French influences, famously reserved, fashionable to the end – yet to Hadley much of her life remained a mystery. Sala’s experience of surviving one of the most tumultuous periods in modern history was never spoken about.
-
-
Great story but better read than listened to
- By ShallI on 03-06-20
-
The Glossy Years
- Magazines, Museums and Selective Memoirs
- By: Nicholas Coleridge
- Narrated by: Nicholas Coleridge
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over his 30-year career at Condé Nast, Nicholas Coleridge has witnessed it all. From the anxieties of the Princess of Wales to the blazing fury of Mohamed Al-Fayed, his story is also the story of the people who populate the glamorous world of glossy magazines. With relish and astonishing candour, he offers the inside scoop on Tina Brown and Anna Wintour, David Bowie and Philip Green, Kate Moss and Beyonce and a surreal weekend away with Bob Geldof and William Hague.
-
-
Not absolutely fabulous
- By Zebra Karma on 09-10-19
-
Cecil Beaton
- By: Hugo Vickers
- Narrated by: Hugo Vickers
- Length: 27 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1980, Beaton personally chose Hugo Vickers to be his biographer, entrusting him with his diaries and the entire body of letters he had written - both personally and professionally - over the course of his life. Drawing on five years of intensive research and interviews with the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Truman Capote, Princess Grace of Monaco and Sir John Gielgud, Vickers' biography was an instant best seller upon its publication in 1985.
-
-
Utterly fascinating insight!
- By Alison St Pierre on 10-08-20
-
To War with the Walkers
- By: Annabel Venning
- Narrated by: Annabel Venning
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How would it feel if all your sons and daughters were caught up in war? What would it be like to spend six years fearing what a telegram might bring? That was the heart-wrenching reality faced by so many families throughout the Second World War, including the parents of the Walker children. From the Blitz to the battlefields of Europe and the Far East, this is the remarkable story of four brothers and two sisters who were swept along by the momentous events of the war.
-
Fall
- The Mystery of Robert Maxwell
- By: John Preston
- Narrated by: Simon Bubb
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In February 1991, the media mogul and former MP Robert Maxwell made a triumphant entrance into Manhattan harbour aboard his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, to complete his purchase of the ailing New York Daily News. Crowds lined the quayside to watch his arrival, taxi drivers stopped their cabs to shake his hand and children asked for his autograph. But just 10 months later, Maxwell disappeared from the same yacht off the Canary Islands, only to be found dead in the water soon afterward.
-
-
Utterly fascinating!!
- By L. BETTLES on 08-02-21
-
The Housekeeper's Tale
- The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House
- By: Tessa Boase
- Narrated by: Tessa Boase
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Housekeeper's Tale reveals the personal sacrifices, bitter disputes and driving ambition that shaped these women's careers. Using secret diaries, unpublished letters, and the neglected service archives of our stately homes, Tessa Boase tells the extraordinary stories of five working women who ran some of Britain's most prominent households.
-
-
Gripping stories, compulsive listening
- By Susan on 22-02-17
-
Agent Sonya
- Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: Ben Macintyre
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the quiet Cotswolds village of Great Rollright in 1944, a thin and unusually elegant housewife emerged from her cottage to go on her usual bike ride. A devoted mother of three, attentive wife and friendly neighbour, Sonya Burton seemed to epitomise rural British domesticity. However, rather than pedalling towards the shops with her ration book, Sonya was heading for the Oxfordshire countryside to gather scientific secrets from a nuclear physicist. Secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the atomic bomb.
-
-
Another Great Story
- By Jayceon1888 on 17-09-20
-
The Ratline
- Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive
- By: Philippe Sands
- Narrated by: Philippe Sands, Katja Riemann, Stephen Fry
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As governor of Galicia, SS Brigadesführer Otto Freiherr von Wächter presided over an authority on whose territory hundreds of thousands of Jews and Poles were killed. By the time the war ended in May 1945, he was indicted for 'mass murder'. He spent three years hiding in the Alps before making his way to Rome and being taken in by the Vatican where he remained for three months. While preparing to travel to Argentina on the 'ratline' he died unexpectedly, in July 1949, a few days after having lunch with an 'old comrade' whom he suspected of having been recruited by the Americans.
-
-
The banality of evil, and how easily we accept it
- By Colin Dixon on 12-05-20
-
The Good Germans
- Resisting the Nazis, 1933-1945
- By: Catrine Clay
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After 1933, as the terror regime took hold, most of the two-thirds of Germans who had never voted for the Nazis tried to keep their heads down and protect their families - they moved to the country, or pretended to support the regime to avoid being denounced by neighbours, and tried to work out what was really happening in the Reich, surrounded as they were by Nazi propaganda and fake news.
-
-
A fantastic read. Many interesting people.
- By Andy Gardner on 16-12-20
Summary
A panoramic new history of modern Britain, as told through the story of one extraordinary family and one groundbreaking company.
In the early 1800s Lehmann Gluckstein and his family escaped the pogroms of Eastern Europe and made their way to Whitechapel in the East End of London. There, starting with nothing, they worked tirelessly to pull themselves out of poverty, creating a small tobacco factory that quickly grew to become the largest catering company in the world: J. Lyons. For over a century, Lyons was everywhere. Its restaurants and corner houses were on every high street, its coffee and tea in every cup, its products in every home. The company transformed the way we eat, drink and are entertained - democratising luxury and globalising our tastes. A story of the virtue of hard work, perseverance and an indomitable spirit in the face of repeated obstacles.
Critic reviews
"Endlessly fascinating and hard to put down. I read it all in one sitting, enjoying the colour and grandeur [...] Full of character and characters, this is a tour de force.” (Julia Neuberger)
More from the same
What listeners say about Legacy
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- mcfontaine
- 28-11-20
Brilliant, again.
The third family history from Thomas Harding and again a brilliantly detailed history. So well researched and such an engaging read/listen.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Linda
- 22-06-20
Fascinating Family History
I really enjoyed this audio book. The story of the rise and rise of this immigrant family who certainly worked hard to win their place in British commerce. They went on to become part of British Culture and the historical background kept me listening. It is also a great, sprawling family saga as well as a historical and social commentary on British life. Definitely recommended.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 03-05-20
great read
I remember lyons tea shops but never knew the fascinating story behind the family that started it all. A real rags to riches story. This is a history of England that is told so well. really enjoyed this book.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- eunice
- 28-03-20
Lyons Corner House
Brilliant! Gripping! So much information of a time gone by.
We owe this family much credit of what they have done and achieved.
"The Legacy" is aptly named.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- mr philip kelly
- 10-10-19
Fascinating history of a Family.
A fascinating story from start to finish.
beautifully read. The first 40 years of the story read like an habitory, the heart break of children lost and family members. As the story gathers pace for me the 1870-1920's . Amazing , truly amazing what they achieved and where part of so many historical events. I can't recommend this more.
some many characters. Wish I had a fund.....
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- J.Brock
- 03-11-19
So lengthy it's hard to follow
"Legacy" covers quite a family. It stretches over at least 3 generations of a most industrious family of Jewish immigrants to Britain, the Glucksteins, the Salmons by marriage, and J Lyons by partnership. The story covers so many years and generations that it is hard to follow via an audiobook. Reading it might be a lot easier because then you can see the generations laid out via the pages. Randomly, the book mentions Jack the Ripper, no doubt due to the fact the family lived in Whitechapel, and other culturally significant incidents. But it is very hard to keep the families, children, children's children, etc straight when listening. But it's quite a colorful story of a very famous family. Mark Meadows's narration is spot on.