Legacy

'I was riveted: this is a fascinating social history.' NIGELLA LAWSON
'Five stars... history on a scale at once intimate and grand.' TELEGRAPH
'A magnificent book... endlessly fascinating.' JEWISH CHRONICLE
'How the Lyons company took on the world... a satisfying slab of dynastic history.' GUARDIAN, 'Book of the Day'
'Written with love and imagination... a masterclass in historical empathy.' TLS
'Enthralling... fascinating.' OBSERVER
'Rich... Fascinating... Harding is to be congratulated on this panoramic history.' EVENING STANDARD
'Endlessly fascinating and hard to put down... this is a tour de force.' JULIA NEUBERGER

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 London’s East End. There, starting with nothing, they worked tirelessly to pull themselves out of poverty, creating a small tobacco factory that grew to become the largest catering company in the world: J. Lyons.

For over a century, Lyons was on every high street, in every home, in every coffee and teacup. It was an ascent from rags to riches in the face of many obstacles: poverty, hatred and anti-Semitism stood between this poor immigrant family and the British Dream.

Legacy charts the rise and fall of one of the most influential dynasties in British history through the lives of five astonishing generations. Both sweeping and intimate, it is a story of sacrifice and selflessness, betrayal and personal tragedy, and Empire and its cost. It is also an illuminating new exploration of Britain and its place in the world, from the bestselling author of Hanns and Rudolf and The House by the Lake.
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'Legacy is the biography of the extraordinary family who put the respectable teashop on the corner, the hamburger on the high street, plus the cuppa and Ready Brek on your breakfast table. Thomas Harding is a researcher of the first rank. Nobody quite stirs the soup of historical detail like Harding.' EXPRESS

‘An affectionate family history, deftly sandwiched in the rise and fall of empires, two world wars, and two centuries of social and political change.’ ECONOMIST

'An affectionate and colourful family portrait.' FINANCIAL TIMES

'This extraordinarily rich and meticulously researched history of modern Britain is a tour de force. […] It’s a paen to the immigrant contribution to our nation.' BOOKSELLER

'I absolutely love this book.' TRACY ANN OBERMAN

'Absolutely fascinating.' GILES COREN