England in Particular: A Celebration of the Commonplace, the Local, the Vernacular and the Distinctive [Hardcover]

'It should be at every curious Englishman's bedside.'

(Alan Titchmarsh )

'A living portrait of England here and now, with all the narrative and mystery of the past attached ... The book is gracefully written, phenomenally knowledgeable, and simply exhilarating, speaking as it does of the extraordinary things that are all around us, if we are only prepared to open our eyes to them.'

(Fay Weldon )

'As vital as it is joyous, and as timely as it is inspired ... It should join Shakespeare and the Bible as a "must have" on any English man or woman's desert island.

(Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall )

'An entrancing green alphabet ..."The land is our most elaborate storyboard," say Sue Clifford and Angela King as they demonstrate this truth in seemingly countless small essays, each one a brief masterpiece of combined natural and social history ... this is a book for all English seasons and for every English mile'

(Ronald Blythe )

'This wise and witty and broad-shouldered celebration (it ranges from accents and airfields to wrestling and zigzags) is the triumphant fruition of their work with Common Ground.'

(Richard Mabey )

'A magical celebration of English diversity and a much-needed wake-up call as we sleepwalk further into the dreary global monoculture.'

(Zac Goldsmith )

'A living portrait of England here and now ... gracefully written, phenomenally knowledgeable, and simply exhilarating'

'An entrancing green alphabet ... this is a book for all English seasons and for every English mile'

'This book is a joy. It celebrates the rich and enduring oddness of England in all its glory'

'Essential...rejoice that we live in an England that can produce this book in particular.'

'Rejoice that we live in an England that can produce this book in particular.'

'A wonderfully constructed book for anyone interested in the rich tapestry of England's natural resources.'

'A beautifully presented 500-page encyclopaedia of Englishness...a book to open our eyes and shame us into action.'

'A complex blend of archaeology, anthropology, social and natural history, ecology and simple storytelling...an absolute delight.'

'This is one of the most handsome books I have come across...it is a joy to dip into.'

Apples, bandstands, beach huts, black dogs, breweries, bricks, cakes, causeways, chalk horses, cheese rolling, cider, cooling towers, curbstones, dances, dialect, dry stone walls, fens, fire festivals, foxes, gargoyles, geology, ghosts, heaths, heronries, ice houses, jet, lagoons, maypoles, mazes, moats, nightingales, peat, pies, primrose banks, quicksand, rhubarb, sheep, spoil heaps, terraced houses, topiary, weather, windmills, zawns...

England is a land of extraordinary variety, rich in buildings, landscapes, peoples and wildlife. But this diversity is under siege. Mass production, fashion, increased mobility and the forceful promotion of corporate identity have brought with them standardised shop fronts, farm buildings, factories, forests and front doors, while intensive farming has created a bland, empty countryside. ENGLAND IN PARTICULAR is a counterblast against loss and uniformity, and a celebration of just some of the distinctive details that cumulatively make England. It is the culmination of more than twenty years'  work by Sue Clifford and Angela King, who founded Common Ground with Roger Deakin.

ENGLAND IN PARTICULAR is a ground-breaking work, destined to become a classic.

Sue Clifford and Angela King founded the charity Common Ground in 1983 to promote local distinctiveness in all its forms and to campaign against the homogenisation of our surroundings. They have published many books, pamphlets and manifestos, and were behind the magnificent Flora Britannica project.