Book excerpt: Five-volume history of broadcasting in the UK. Together the volumes give an authoritative account of the rise of broadcasting in this country. Though naturally largely concerned with the BBC it does give a general history of broadcasting, not simply an institutional history of the BBC. Vol 1. - The birth of broadcasting - covers early amateur experiments in wireless telephony in America and in England, the pioneer days at Writtle in Essex and elsewhere, and the coming of organized broadcasting and its rapid growth during the first four years of the BBC's existence as a private Company before it became a public Corporation in January 1927. - Vol 2. - The golden age of wireless - covers the period from the beginning of 1927, when the BBC ceased to be a private company and became a public corporation, up to the outbreak of war in 1939. - Vol 3. - The war of words - covers the period from 1939 to 1945, is concerned not only with the impact of the Second World War on the structure, organization, and programmes of the BBC, it also deals directly with the role of the BBC outside as well as inside Britainches - Vol 4. - Sound and vision - The ten years following the end of the Second World War were critical years in the history of British broadcasting. They witnessed the rise of television and the end of the BBC's monopoly. - Vol 5. - Competition - continues the monumental history of broadcasting in the UK over a period of 20 years, from 1955 to the mid 1970s.