An Updated Journey of Britain (over seventy years)
About Britain is a book to take you beyond the capital, to explore Britain as a living country. In 1951, thirteen guides celebrated the rural splendour of our island nature, and now historian Tim takes to the roads, to find out what has changed.
And what has remained the same, in the 70 years since the guides were first published.
From Oban (in the Highlands) to Torquay (and taking in Welsh Caernarvon to Cambridge), he explores visible changes to our landscape, and subtle social and cultural shifts that lie beneath.
This is a warm timely meditation on our changing relationship with landscape, industry and transport.
As he looks out on apple orchards and vineyards, power stations and slate mines, and (in the modern age) vast greenhouses and fulfilment centres for shopping online, this is a stark contrast with the guidebooks of yesteryear. The book covers:
- West Country
- Wessex
- Home counties
- East Anglia
- Chilterns to Black Country
- South Wales and the Marches
- North Wales and the Marches
- East Midlands the Peak
- Lancashire and Yorkshire
- The Lakes to Tyneside
- Lowlands of Scotland
- Highlands and Islands of Scotland
About the Author
Professor Tim Cole is Professor of Social History at Bristol University. He previously wrote a book on the Holocaust, which was commended by the jury of the Fraenkel Prize.
