Concerning a short text for British history, there's one by Birdsall
S. Viault, English History. It is in McGraw-Hill's College Core
Series (and @ $11.95). It is very outline-ish. W.A. Speck's A
Concise History of Britain 1707-1975, is brief. The short paperback
works in the Oxford History of Britain (ed. K. Morgan) are good, but are
in five volumes. What about Briggs's Social History of England? Best
of luck.
Phillip Smith
Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia