Who Do the English Think They Are?

From the Anglo-Saxons to Brexit

What makes the English so . . . English? Where does English national identity come from? Historian and journalist Derek Taylor goes in search of answers on a journey through space and time. He visits battlefields, churches, remote islands, a slum, and many more places which, over 1600 years, have shaped the English sense of themselves. Along the way, he finds the Vikings were more family men than sex-mad thugs. He tells how the DNA of the English is mainly German and French. He explains too how the English nearly ended up speaking French. And how the origins of parliamentary democracy, the steam engine, and the internet helped form the identity of the English people. Bringing together a journalist's eye and a historian's incisive mind, the result is vivid, informative, and often surprising.