ANATOMY OF A NATION

Sub-titled 'A History of British Identity In 50 Documents', historian and barrister Dominic Selwood explores over 950,000 years of British History. Some of the 50 documents he has chosen are well known, but most are not. Each reveals something important about Britain and its people. From Anglo-Saxon poetry, medieval folk music and the first Valentine's Day letter, to the origin of computer code, Hitler's kill list of prominent Britons, the Sex Pistols' graphic art, and the Brexit Referendum ballot paper, people are at the heart of the story - a female charioteer queen from Wetwang, a plague-surviving graffiti artist, a drunken bible translator, outlandish Restoration rakehells, canting criminals, the eccentric fathers of modern typography, and the bankers who cause the financial crisis. Selwood blends human stories with the selected 50 documents to bring out a startling variety and complexity of Britain's achievements and failures and with incisive insight into the British psyche. A mammoth 660pp in glamorous hardback, with many illus. and only published in 2021.