Another England is a refreshing, uplifting and important book by England’s only (outgoing) Green MP Caroline Lucas, who has written these words, as a compassionate and alternative response to the hard-right taking over our country. When politics becomes too soft on certain issues (like crime and of course recent issues with immigration), unfortunately it usually then rears the ugly head of bigoted politics, who seek to lazily blame all society’s problems on others, rather than their own lack of vision.
This book aims to heal a divided nation when often innocent people are being blamed for problems like overcrowding, lack of housing and crime. Caroline writes that ‘the right have hijacked Englishness. Can it be reclaimed?’
There is one thing being patriotic, but today it has almost become imperial nostalgia. In a tolerant country, we are usually fine with disagreeing over politics or religion or monarchy, but today it is making people scared. If you proclaim ‘proud to be English’, sometimes people may think you support a far-right political party or are intolerant of others, which often is not the case.
Drawing on medieval writers and Romantic poets who reflected a more sustainable relationship with the natural world, Caroline delves into our literacy heritage to address pressing issues of our time like the legacy of the ‘Empire’, the struggle for constitutional reform or the climate emergency. She sketches out an ‘alternative Englishness’, one that we can all embrace for a greener, fairer future.
Progressives have for too long treated the idea of an English national identity as an embarrassment, allowing the Right to create and exploit a narrow and chauvinistic version of collective belongong. In this vivid and invigorating book, Caroline shatters these distorting mirrors and reveals a more interesting and complex picture of Englishness.. engaging, illuminating and ultimately uplfiting. Fintan O’Toole
We can make England brutal or beautiful. To understand the choice and how we make the right one together, read this book, a wonderful and timely book on the country we can still be. Neal Lawson
Author Caroline Lucas is MP for Brighton Pavilion, and still the UK’s only Green Party MP. First elected in 2010, she also served as leader from 2008 to 2012 and co-leader from 2016 to 2018. She holds a PHD in English from University of Exeter, where her dissertation was on the role of women leaders in Elizabethan literature. She is stepping down at the next election to focus on other projects to help the planet.
how ‘unloved’ creatures welcomed an immigrant
Late Light is a Wainwright-nominated book by an Indonesian-Australian, who looks at the West Country and its nature and wildlife, through the eyes of an immigrant. A book about falling in love with vanishing things, Michael makes a home for himself in England, then finds strange parallels between his life and the lives of local creatures.
Mixing natural history with memoir, the book explores the mystery of our animal neighbours and the hope they can inspire in us. A book on migration, belonging and extinction, the book closely examines four ‘unloved’ animals – eels, moths, crickets & mussels, alongside telling the story of how economic, political and cultural events have shaped our modern landscape.
This is a rich blend of nature writing d meditation, plus the notion of belonging, from a vibrant new voice. Abi Andrews says this book will leave you aching with ‘world-love’.
Michael Malay is a writer and teacher based in Bristol. He spent his early years in Jakarta, before moving to Australia with his family at the age of 10. This is his first book.
