England

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents England by Tom Baldwin and Marc Stears, read by James Bartlett.

‘Challenging, forensic, compelling' SATHNAM SANGHERA
‘Pure centrist erotica. A myth-busting chronicle of bad-tempered, Brexit-riven England' SUNDAY TIMES
‘Wonderfully evocative. Too honest, too nuanced and too deep for any party manifesto' MATTHEW PARRIS

After an election where people voted for a politics that our new Prime Minister describes as 'treading more lightly on people’s lives', this must-read book charts a gentler course for a country that has suffered the ructions of profound change in recent decades.

Some politicians will still talk of restoring an English birthright of liberty and the swashbuckling self-confidence to rule the waves. Others yearn for the old-fashioned morality which they claim once civilised a savage world or want to look inwards to a story of an enchanted island that can stand alone and isolated against the world.

But England, by Tom Baldwin, the bestselling biographer of Keir Starmer, and Marc Stears, an influential think tank head, unravels the myths that have distorted ideas of this country and provided ammunition for culture warriors from both left and right.

Instead of vainly promising to solve everything all at once, Baldwin and Stears provide clues for how a humbler, less grandiose, set of ideas rooted in real lives can help fix some of the things that have gone so badly wrong in recent years.

They travel from muddy fields in the Home Counties to the ports of Plymouth and Hull. They visit the old industrial heartland of Wolverhampton, spend weekends in the worn-down seaside resort of Blackpool, then gaze up the gleaming towers of modernity on the edge of London and the dreaming spires of Oxford. Along the way, they speak with many different people who tell stories of England, including politicians Nigel Farage and David Lammy, campaigner Chrisann Jarrett, playwright James Graham and scientist Sarah Gilbert.

What emerges is a startlingly fresh and vivid picture of an old country that belongs to everyone, or at least, to no one in particular.

Critics Review

Pure centrist erotica. This myth-busting chronicle of bad-tempered, Brexit-riven England aims to provide Keir Starmer with the grand narrative he needs

Sunday Times

The book is cast as a travelogue, from Runnymede to Surrey, site of the signing of the Magna Carta and from where the idea that the English invented liberty is examined, to the seafaring buccaneers of Plymouth, working-class Blackpool and supposedly anti-immigrant Wolverhampton, to the cosy establishment elite of Oxford . . . Enjoyable . . . Compelling

Financial Times

Challenging, forensic, compelling

Sathnam Sanghera, author of 'Empireland'

England, with great insight, humour and compassion, punctures the shared myths and simplistic narratives of a complex country and its ever-surprising people. It entertainingly trawls through our long past in order to imagine a more hopeful future. And with a cast of characters to die for. A deeply human, unpretentious and evocative new look at an old country

James Graham, playwright, 'Dear England'

A concerted act of myth-busting – about Magna Carta, about immigration and more – that seeks to build something better from the wreckage

Prospect, Books of the Year

This iconoclastic masterpiece is well argued and beautifully written. A thoroughly entertaining read

Alan Johnson, author of 'This Boy'

Wonderfully evocative descriptions of English places, English identities and the myths that cling to them. Too honest, too nuanced and too deep for any party manifesto

Matthew Parris

A fascinating journey exploration of England and the English. Stears and Baldwin have thought deeply about who we were, who we are, and where we are going. Filled with colourful places and eccentric people, their tale of England told through a tour of its towns and cities gives a fresh perspective on the culture and history of a much-misunderstood nation. Essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the deep currents which have shaped England today, both what divides us and what we share

Robert Ford, author of 'Brexitland'

A beautiful and detailed parsing of the eccentricities and contradictions at the heart of English identity

Josie Rourke, theatre and film director

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