Armchair Nation

Moran has fast become Britain's foremost explorer and explainer of the disregarded -- Juliet Gardiner, author of 'Wartime: Britain 1939-1945'
At last! The view from the sofa. A history of television that reflects the lives of those who watch it - and that means pretty well all of us. Informative, evocative, funny, moving, sometimes even startling, Joe Moran, Britain's premier historian of the everyday, has pulled it off again. -- Juliet Gardiner
Terrific...both erudite and highly entertaining -- Simon Hoggart
Joe Moran is the most perceptive and original observer of British life that we have -- Matthew Engel
Joe Moran's affectionate and erudite chronicle of our nation's love affair with TV achieves the impossible - it is scholarly AND accessible. It is a compelling account of a golden age and reminds us in the process that today's age of plenty has diluted the cultural impact of TV -- Michael Grade
A quite brilliant history of a now lost world of British terrestrial television, Armchair Nation is as warm and friendly as an old valve set and, correspondingly, also crackling and humming with new insights and fresh research. -- Travis Elborough
All that time we were watching television Joe Moran was thinking about it. This wonderful book is packed with stories and characters, shot through with Moran's customary affection for the ordinary and the overlooked. A beautiful study of that flickering box that keeps us enthralled. -- Sam West
Joe Moran is a wonderfully gifted social historian, with a ravenous capacity for research ... He is particularly good at overturning the bogus collective memories to which television so often gives rise ... His sources from diaries and memoirs are rich and varied ... Armchair Nation offers rich pickings for those, like me, who struggle to remember (everything we've watched). -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *
One of the most entertaining things about the book - and there are many - is finding out how many of the things we think we know about television are either myths, or simply hogwash ... As well as being consistently perceptive in his observations, Moran has done something I would confidently have thought impossible - he's made the history of British TV as dramatic as it is fun. -- John Preston * Sunday Telegraph *
You will find a lot to love in Armchair Nation. Impeccably researched ... Perhaps the most admirable thing about this book is that it treats television with proper seriousness. -- Rachel Cooke * New Statesman *
A richly detailed book, as profoundly nostalgic as scoffing Findus Crispy Pancakes or Bird's Eye Potato Waffles. -- Roger Lewis * Daily Mail *
A formidable historical analysis of the gogglebox ... Moran's achievement is remarkable given the breadth of subject matter ... Extensive research is lightly worn -- Arifa Akbar * Independent *
Moran is scholarly but welcoming ... But in its insights, clarity and honest wit, it's hard to imagine a more engaging book on a subject everyone already thinks they know about. As in the best TV itself, you find yourself learning something new with almost no effort. -- Phil Hogan * Observer *
A warm, witty cultural history of television ... Moran creates a compelling and surprising patchwork of the nation through its viewing habits and rituals ... Armchair Nation may provoke nostalgia, but it's never enslaved by it - it's a timely and hugely entertaining assessment of a medium in flux. -- Gabriel Tate * Time Out *
Quite wonderful, beautifully written ... it reveals a seated nation, something which has never happened before. There is nothing like it. -- Dr Ronald Blythe
A scholarly, accessible and illuminating history of the everyday. -- Philippa Williams * The Lady *
Armchair Nation is as compulsive as any soap, as informative as any documentary and as funny as any sitcom. Moran knows and loves his subject, exploring well-covered territory as well as the less familiar with wit and perception. -- Harry Venning * The Stage *
Joe Moran is a superb elegist of the mundane ... Armchair Nation is a captivating look at a universal but unsung subject: the British television viewer ... packed with glorious details -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Country Life *
One would expect a book from a professor of English and cultural history to be immaculately researched, but the real joy of Armchair Nation is that it's crammed full of such wry, perceptive cultural nuggets ... genuinely enthralling. -- Ben East * Observer *