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"

Careful research is mixed with an aptly freewheeling approach, allowing the reader to experience the past as an adventure powered as much by accident as incident. Rarely does history feel so beguiling.-- "The Observer"

This is a book as much about the experience of history as history itself. ... Learned and likeable.-- "Sunday Times"

If you'd like a linear kings and battles history go elsewhere as Robb is more interested in overlooked details, coincidences and accidents of history and digging up evidence that questions or subverts what we've all been taught to think about this country. ... Mind-blowing. ... He has the superb ability of taking a single off-kilter subject (say, boarding schools and playing cricket) and widening it out to illuminate something much larger.-- "Shortlist"

Graham Robb tumbles into British history with an infectious enthusiasm. ... Immensely entertaining.--Chris Bryant, author of The Glamour Boys

Rediscovers Britain's past in unexpected ways, melding memory and observation with history and geography.--Brian Groom, author of Made in Manchester

A dazzling and dizzyingly wonderful roam through Britain's past. This is history writing as you've never read it before.--Jack Cornish, author of The Lost Paths

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Pub date: 2026-01-20

Length: 464 pages