ENGLAND

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