In Churchill's Shadow: Confronting The Past In Modern Britain

Once Britannia ruled the waves and everyone knew what it meant to be British. But now things are not so clear. What defines Britishness in the modern age? Can we let go of our history?

This book is a brilliant, provocative examination of a realm caught between the past and the present, which takes on a range of national icons from Ian Fleming to Gilbert and Sullivan, the National trust to Noel Coward, and, of course, Winston Churchill. Modern Britain's saviour and yet also a Victorian personality from another age, he embodies the contradictions within the British identity, and, it seems, is the one figure whose shadow we cannot shake off.