"Matless [organizes] his material into six valuable chapters on the post-imperial decades from 1960 to the present, in which he argues that our assumptions 'concerning Englishness, place and landscape were significantly shaped in the 1960s and '70s' . . . Matless connects culture directly to the political. He is alive to issues of identity, particularly when times get tough and there is comfort in Anglo-Saxon, sunken-lane certainties of shire and hearth."

Times Literary Supplement (UK)

"Drawing on an impressive range of sources, Matless (cultural geography, Univ. of Nottingham, UK) creates a flexible typology about a contested national identity during a period of accelerated change. . . . The author knows his subject well and weaves his own reminiscences into the text."

Choice

Scholarly yet highly accessible. . . Matless teases out paradoxes and inconsistencies and chips away at such symbolic high (or low) points as the Falklands War, the 2012 London Olympics and, inevitably, the 2016 Brexit vote and its ramifications.”

Literary Review (UK)

"Matless [makes] some telling connections between time and place. He has much of interest to say on the English suburb – a design for living that is distinctive (often in a positive way) from the urban sprawl of other countries."

The Mail (UK)

“A thought-provoking exploration of English identity from the postwar period to the present day . . . a kaleidoscopic tour through the ways the myth of England has been articulated since the 1950s . . . About England is an engaging read, full of intriguing stories and cunningly chosen pictures. In a sense it is a book about memory; the memory of England.”

BBC History (UK)

"Matless sets out to examine the England that’s present in the living memory of millions of people by delving into commentary of what has been said about it over the past 60 or so years and bringing to life places deemed to reveal something about the nature and character of the country. He seeks to open up the English question and explain the complex nature of English identity, from the early 1960s to the opening years of our current decade."

Geographical Magazine (UK)

“David’s specialist subject is Englishness and he examines how this has been shaped over the last 60 years. He looks at Englishness through our cultural icons such as John Betjemen, Reginald Perrin and David Bowie and analyses how the national identity is entangled with the local, the regional, the European, the international and the global.”

This England (UK)

"Wide-ranging and astonishingly erudite, About England offers a magisterial analysis of the varying ways in which English identity has been celebrated, debated, and reflected upon between the Second World War and the present. Thoughtful, probing and richly documented, the book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the meaning and significance of contemporary languages of Englishness."

Paul Readman, author of 'Storied Ground: Landscape and the Shaping of English National Identity'

"In this masterly new book, David Matless unravels the complex weave of ‘Englishness’ in its continual twists and turns over the last sixty years. In so doing, he vividly identifies polarities, fear and pride, the pastoral and the modern, and many more, while highlighting the intense, even baffling, cultural connection between landscape and nation that lies at the heart of it all. This is an important, stimulating book."

Gillian Darley, writer and broadcaster

"As factual as it is sensitive as it is caring, About England enlightens the reader by way of idiosyncratic initiation, that is both analytical and majestic. A terrific read."

David Marx Book Reviews

"About England is a compelling insight into the national psyche and culture."

Cultural Geographies