ESSENTIAL LETTERS FROM AMERICA: THE OOS (AUDIOBOOK)

This last selection of Letters focuses on the turbulent times in the US in the first years of the new millennium. Cooke covers the famously controversial 2000 election, in which George W. Bush narrowly beat Al Gore, and the tragic events of 9/11 and their aftermath. Cooke''s final Letter, broadcast on 20th February 2004, reflects on President Bush''s difficulties as the situation in Iraq unravelled. There are also Letters in a more personal vein, as Cooke reflects on Thanksgiving, remembers the golfer Bobby Jones and bids farewell to his friends in San Francisco. The Letters are set in their historical context with a specially commissioned script narrated by the BBC''s award-winning American correspondent Matt Frei. In March 2004, just one month after the broadcast of his final Letter, Alistair Cooke died. His ashes were scattered in Central Park, New York, and a Memorial Service was held in Westminster Abbey, London, where for the first time ever, the Stars and Stripes flew in his honour.