The Full English
A Journey in Search of a Country and its People
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An insightful and far-reaching expedition into Englishness. Stuart Maconie is one of the keenest observers of English identity. Who better to take the temperature of the nation at this uncertain waymark on our national journey? Deftly weaving history and politics in engaging, conversational prose, The Full English is a love-letter to England written in Maconie's inimitable style. As we wend our way through towns and cities, by Megabus and Avanti train, we meet a rich cast of characters and delve into the seldom-explored crevices of our national psyche. There have been classic portraits of a nation in turmoil before. Before Orwell there was Bradfordian polymath JB Priestley, who travelled far and wide. Priestley's English Journey is a warm, funny and tender forgotten classic. A huge and immediate success in its own time, it transcends its 30s origins to speak to our troubled present: scathing about vested interests, intensely patriotic and politically progressive. Now, ninety years on, Stuart Maconie undertakes his own inventory of the English and Englishness, with Priestley's thirties itinerary as guide. How does the country look today, freshly unmoored from its European neighbours and still emerging blinking from the ice age of doubt and insecurity that was Covid? Re-energised? Hungry for change? Or moribund, dazed and desperate for old certainties? Following in Priestley's footsteps hither and thither across our tiny nation, Maconie's crowning achievement is popular, timely and entertaining.
About this Author
Stuart Maconie is a writer, broadcaster and journalist familiar to millions from his work in print, on radio and on TV. His previous bestsellers have included Cider with Roadies, Pies and Prejudice and Adventures on the High Teas. He hosts a show for BBC Radio 6 Music (with Mark Radcliffe) every weekend morning between 8 and 11am.Based in Birmingham and Manchester, he can also often be spotted on top of a mountain in the Lake District with a Thermos flask and individual pork pie. He is a champion ice skater and once shared a van with Napalm Death.
Reviews
'Maconie is a funny, astute writer, alert to the absurd.' Sunday Times Book of the Week
'Observant and witty.' The Times
'The deceptive lightness and accessibility of Maconie's writing lead us gently through what is actually a deep dive into this most mysterious of peoples.' Jonathan Coe
'Chatty and cheerful.' Graham Robb
'Thoughtful and characteristically entertaining.' Waterstones Books of the Year
'Maconie catches the exhausted national mood beautifully.' New Statesman
'Takes the temperature of the English at this point in time.' Hugo Rifkind
'This might be Maconie's best book yet. ... What a treat to read such a clear-eyed but warm-hearted evocation of the country.' Daily Express
'Maconie makes for a chatty, amiable travelling companion and the portrait he paints of contemporary England is a quietly progressive one.' The Herald
Praise for Stuart Maconie...
'As funny as Bryson and as wise as Orwell.' The Observer
'The best thing to come out of Wigan since the A58 to Bolton.' Peter Kay
'A fine writer: sharp, funny, tender and thoughtful.' The Spectator
'A funny, lyrical writer who prefers to persuade rather than browbeat.' Mail on Sunday
'Maconie's engaging, conversational prose is full of telling detail, jokes and deft quotation.' The Telegraph
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