The only other countries in Europe so riven by geography and history are Italy and Germany, and neither has the most profound divide of all – the 1,000-year-old gulf that separates the ordinary English from their elites.

In The Shortest History of England, James Hawes journeys from Caesar to Brexit via Conquest, Empire and world war and discovers an England very different to the standard vision. The stable island fortress, stubbornly independent, the begetter of parliaments and globe-spanning empires, is riven by an ancient fault line that pre-dates even the Romans; its fate has ever been bound up with that of its neighbours, whether the English like it or not; and, for the past 1,000 years, it has harboured a class system like nowhere else on Earth. There has never been a better time to understand why England is the way it is, and there is no better guide.

‘No one writes history as well as James Hawes or uses the past to make sense of the present so skillfully. This is an urgent and electrifying work that takes you to the heart of England’s sickness. Do yourself a favour and read it.’­—Nick Cohen

‘Hawes’s view of English history is sharp and vivid and extremely persuasive’­—Philip Pullman

‘A sparkling little book, which really does begin at the beginning ... might be slipped into a prime ministerial red box’ — Standpoint

‘Sweeping and confident ... has a frightening urgency’ — Observer

‘Excellent ... Hawes knows what he’s on about and his conclusions are measured, but he favours clear, concise prose over dense academese. He has a sense of humour, and a sharp eye for similarities between then and now’ — Spectator

James Hawes is the author of the internationally acclaimed Shortest History of Germany. He has published a biography of Kafka (‘absolutely brilliant and utterly infuriating’ –The Guardian) and Englanders & Huns, the real story of the fatal Anglo-German antagonism (‘full of enlightening surprises’ –The Times).