These Wild English: A family, a class, a country on fire

'An unforgettable and moving portrait of working-class alienation' JAMES REBANKS

'Everyone should read this defiant, lively, terrific book' SPECTATOR

'Wonderful ... I was immersed in it' Melvyn Bragg

A BOOKSELLER BOOK OF THE YEAR

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I'm England till I die. I know I am, I'm sure I am, I'm England till I die!

Mum's marching through towns yelling slogans with the EDL. Billy's in prison for armed robbery. And Nicola's left holding the family photos, asking: how did we get here?

These Wild English follows three generations of a working-class family as they struggle with the forces reshaping modern Britain. Nicola's mum grew up on a farm with seven siblings, part of a family the police knew well and the pubs knew better. But that landscape and community is long gone. As she navigates low-paid work and stormy marriages against a constant hum of economic decline, Mum begins looking for a new source of belonging. And the appeal of the far right will have consequences that stretch far beyond her family.

From the working farms of Cumbria to the windswept shores of Kent, via bleak barracks in Cyprus and Northern Ireland, this is a rare and tender reckoning with the love, rage, pride and loss of a community and a country. It will change how you see the divisions of our age.

'Utterly compelling' REBECCA SMITH

'Powerful... sheds light on liberal Britain's betrayal of the white working-class' OBSERVER

'Vivid and beautifully written' Daily Mail