Audiobook · read by volunteers
Our Island Story, Part 1
Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall (1867–1941)
Read by Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023) · 55 chapters · 8 h 05
About the book
Long before history became a matter of dates and dry textbooks, it was told aloud, and Henrietta Marshall tells it that way. Her story of England starts in the mists of legend, with Albion and Brutus, then follows the Roman ships across the Channel, a warrior queen, a martyred saint, a giants’ dance carried to Britain and the first stirrings of Arthur. Each chapter is a tale in itself, short enough for one sitting yet linked to the next, so that the centuries slip by like turning pages. Folk story and recorded fact sit side by side, and the narrator never talks down to her young listeners. This first part carries you from the earliest legends through the Roman and Saxon ages and on to the quarrels that would tear the kingdom apart. Settle in, and let the island’s past unfold, one story at a time.
Introduction
Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall, who lived from 1867 to 1941 and signed her books H. E. Marshall, wrote Our Island Story for young readers and first published it in 1905. Long out of fashion, it was reprinted in the 2000s and found a new audience. It became a favourite of the nursery and the schoolroom, and its method explains why: instead of lists of reigns, Marshall tells history as a sequence of stories, giving legend its place beside better-documented events and keeping her sentences clear and warm.
The first part, recorded here, opens with an introduction and then moves through the tales of Albion and Brutus, the coming of the Romans, and the story of a warrior queen. It goes on to Saint Alban, to Vortigern and Constans, to the arrival of Hengist and Horsa, to Arthur and the founding of the Round Table, and it continues across the following centuries. The book is divided into 55 short chapters and runs for about eight hours, which makes it an easy companion for a long journey or a quiet week of evenings.
The recording was made by LibriVox volunteers, who lent the text their voices as a free gift to anyone with a pair of ears. The book belongs to a long tradition of storytelling histories for children, and it reflects the outlook of its Edwardian moment, so a modern listener will meet attitudes and phrases typical of 1905. That too is part of its interest. Listen to it today for the pleasure of a story well told, and for a glimpse of how a whole generation first learned to picture the kings, queens and heroes of England.
Public domain
Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall died in 1941: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text