Who Are We Now?

I can't tell you how refreshing it is in these polarised times to read a book on politics that doesn't have an axe to grind . . . It is wonderfully written, the pages littered with poetic and literary references, as you might expect from an outstanding journalist . . . an essential read. * The Sunday Times * Subtle, sophisticated . . . compellingly told . . . This is a gentle and intelligent book, refreshingly unpolemical and reflective. -- <font face= verdana, tahoma ><span>Julian Coman</span></font> * Observer Book of the Week * Interesting . . . there is a certain Orwellian (in the best sense) curiosity and insightfulness * Sunday Telegraph * Fascinating . . . a pleasure to read. Cowley has an eye and an ear for the small details that add emotional depth to his reports. -- <font face= verdana, tahoma ><span>Robert Shrimsley</span></font> * Financial Times * A beautiful piece of storytelling - the British eyed from unexpected places, from China to the middle of the middle of the middle. The question will never go away but these answers help us a lot -- <span>Andrew Marr</span> As someone who zips around England - and the wider UK every week - this book really resonates with me. Wonderfully written with colourful and incisive accounts of contemporary England -- <div><font face= verdana, tahoma ><span>Chris Mason, Presenter of</span></font><span> </span><span>BBC Radio 4's </span><i>Any Questions?</i></div> Urgent and timely . . . Cowley powerfully demonstrates how these vivid, half-forgotten stories have contributed to a fragmented England, and offers a vision for how we can embrace the lessons learned to build a bright new future. -- <font face= verdana, tahoma ><span>Scarlett Sangster</span></font> * Breaking News Ireland * A liberal and humane analysis informed by quiet patriotism. [Cowley] doesn't try to define what England is or represents but searches instead for its emotional and cultural underpinnings . . . ruminative and reflective, informed by observation and without polemics. -- John Freeman * Reaction magazine * National identity is at the heart of Who Are We Now? Stories of Modern England . . . It is told through a series of stories, merging the personal and the political - stories of conflict and division but also ultimately of hope. -- <font face= verdana, tahoma ><span>Tom Gatti</span></font> * New Statesman 'What to read this year: non-fiction' * A lyrical blend of the personal and the political, with echoes of Orwell, this book uncovers the hidden story of a fragmented nation. -- <font face= verdana, tahoma ><span>Helen Lewis, journalist, broadcaster and author of <i>Difficult Women</i></span></font> Jason Cowley's well-researched reports and excellent analysis of modern England lead to two inexorable conclusions. We - the people of England - are certainly not who we once were; and we are far from agreeing who we mean when we talk of us. Fascinating, disturbing and brilliantly insightful, especially on towns like Harlow in Essex which are not so much left behind, as overlooked and ignored. -- <font face= verdana, tahoma ><span>Gavin Esler, author of <i>How Britain Ends</i></span></font> Jason Cowley's humane and sharply observed book aims to piece together what the Victorians called the condition of England question , through meditations on Blair's Britain through to Brexit, from civil war in Syria to Covid-19. Who Are We Now? is blessed by curiosity and emphathy for the many overlapping stories from Margate to Morecambe and beyond. The traps of the metropole are avoided and the result is a work of unobtrusive and softly spoken patriotism, written to stand the test of time -- <font face= verdana, tahoma ><span>John Bew, author of the Orwell Prize-winning <i>Citizen Clem: A Biography of Attlee</i></span></font> Cowley offers a haunting 'condition of England' masterpiece, the multiple Englands of his intimate stories elusive, at the mercy of forces far beyond any individual's hopes, somehow enduring. This is a beautifully written meditation of the recent English past and what understanding the plurality of Englishness demands of the English. -- <font face= verdana, tahoma ><span>Helen Thompson, co-host of the <i>Talking Politics</i> podcast</span></font> Behind every electoral statistic, every social and political change is an evocative human story. With his characteristic clarity and flair Jason Cowley pulls out such particularly poignant, and redolent of the spirit of our times, stories. In doing so, he adds a crucial and often overlooked layer to our narratives of modern Britain and the historical tides of the last few decades. The lives of real people jump from these pages to form a rich tapestry, from the extremely dramatic to the most mundane, to shed light on what divides and what unites us, and what makes us the society we are today. -- <font face= verdana, tahoma ><span>Maria Sobolewska, co-author of <i>Brexitland: Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics</i>.</span></font> A trenchant, but also moving, personal analysis of why England has become so divided, which finds hope for the future in the compassion for others that characterized the pandemic. -- <span>Caroline Sanderson</span> * Bookseller Ones to Watch * Engaging . . . This is an important and readable book - a rare combination. -- <font face= verdana, tahoma ><span>Neill Denny</span></font> * BookBrunch *