Robert Winder was literary editor of the INDEPENDENT for 5 years. He has written two novels.
Spirited, provocative, wise, hugely entertaining -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times * Winder, who in 2004 wrote a compelling book about immigration called Bloody Foreigners, expertly navigates his subject without mentioning Brexit. Yet it has a pertinent lesson for some of the more excitable Brexiteers-we have never been an island nation * Prospect * A fascinating attempt to find the sources of Englishness . . . Well-crafted, reflective and quite personal, The Last Wolf is also original and deeply researched -- Robert McCrum * Guardian * A glorious romp through more than eight centuries, told with humour and charm, with the same themes recurring over the ages. Highly recommended -- William Hartston * Daily Express * Winder is at his best when tracing how one thing became another. His excellent description of the rise of Lancashire's enormous cotton industry triggers a discussion of the slave trade and English morality . . . fascinating twists and turns * The Times * A provocative and lively look at what has made the English who they are * Sunday Times * The Last Wolf is an engaging ramble through the wool towns and open ranges of medieval England * Spectator * [Winder] weaves a fabulous tale of wolves and sheep, water and coal, rain and agriculture, industry and architecture, pinpointing qualities that grew out of our landscape * Independent i * An entertainingly discursive anatomy of the English character -- Jane Shilling * Mail on Sunday * This is digestible, friendly, whimsical history: Winder is clearly allergic to boring history books and makes it his business not to write one -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham, author of Terms and Conditions * Times Literary Supplement * I will return to its insights again and again * Country Life * A truly brilliant account of the happy accidents of climate and geography that are the real source of our national identity. It is compulsively readable and packed full of information, anecdote and wit -- Sue Gaisford * Tablet * Spirited, provocative, wise, hugely entertaining * Sunday Times * Winder, who in 2004 wrote a compelling book about immigration called Bloody Foreigners, expertly navigates his subject without mentioning Brexit. Yet it has a pertinent lesson for some of the more excitable Brexiteers-we have never been an island nation * Prospect *