Description

‘Robb has found a new format for writing history just as Craig Brown found a fresh way to write biography’ – Alan Johnson

‘Rarely does history feel so beguiling’ – The Observer

‘A treasure house of a book’ – The Spectator

Taking you on a time-travelling adventure around the ‘spindly, sea-wracked islands’ we call home, The Discovery of Britain is history that’s panoramic and intimate, poignant and shocking, seriously funny, and enlightening in the most surprising way.

In the hands of the prize-winning author of The Discovery of France, and often from the unique vantage point of his bicycle, we encounter an entertaining cast of characters foreign and homegrown, drop in on places and events, and dwell on the successes and catastrophes across British history. From ancient settlements swallowed up by the sea and the creation of Stonehenge to the advent of multiculturalism and recent political earthquakes, all is seen as it’s never been seen before.

With intriguing maps and illustrations throughout, The Discovery of Britain can be devoured whole or each chapter read in the time it takes to change a bicycle tyre or drink a cup of coffee. The wonderful choice of how to enjoy this original and sweeping history of Britain is yours.

Publisher Review

Filled with curiosities . . . Ambitious, with a tinge of eccentricity and perfectly grown-up enough to sustain the occasional disagreement, this is a rich pleasure of a book — Philip Hensher * The Spectator * Robb tumbles into British history with an infectious enthusiasm . . . immensely entertaining — Chris Bryant, author of The Glamour Boys Remarkable . . . a book as much about the experience of history as history itself . . . Learned and likeable * The Sunday Times * A dazzling and dizzyingly wonderful roam through Britain’s past. This is history writing as you’ve never read it before – enchanting and truly exciting’ — Jack Cornish, author of The Lost Paths Meticulous, contrary . . . Robb has the superb ability of taking a single off-kilter subject and widening it out to illuminate something much larger * Shortlist * Engagingly rediscovers Britain’s past in unexpected ways, melding memory and observation with history and geography — Brian Groom, author of Made in Manchester A history where everything is somehow still present and all at once, colourful and jostling along, like a tapestry that draws you close — Garrett Carr, author of The Boy from the Sea