ISLAND STORIES
AN UNCONVENTIONAL
HISTORY OF BRITAIN
David Reynolds
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain in 2019 by William Collins
This William Collins eBook edition published in 2020
Copyright © David Reynolds 2019
Cover image © Shutterstock.com
David Reynolds asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008282356
Ebook Edition © 2020 ISBN: 9780008282332
Version: 2020-07-16
‘Splendid … a clear, well written and highly stimulating account of the flaws in our understanding of Britain’s past that bedevilled the great debate over the country’s relations with the EU and helped produce the result it did. We could have done with it two or three years ago. But then real history, based on extensive reading, research and the wisdom of a true historian, takes a while to write’
Literary Review
‘[A] concise, elegant and lucid revisiting of key themes in British history … There is here not history but histories … Reynolds provides a very useful primer on the delusions of an English mentality’
Guardian
‘Incisive … Reynolds provides a useful summary of the scholarship that has examined the relationship between the four nations in the British Isles … Reynolds is at his best when the narrative of Europe as antagonist is concerned … On the basis of Reynolds’ compelling account, Britain’s future outside the EU ought to begin with an honest assessment of its past.’
Financial Times
‘History is essential to political awareness, and the Brexit debate was certainly shaped by historical narratives. Reynolds subjects these narratives to brisk, witty and often acerbic appraisal … His commentary on how these stories have shaped postwar British politics is compelling’
TLS
‘Lively, slender and timely’
Foreign Affairs
‘The Normans to Nigel Farage: it’s quite a journey … takes us from the 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth, who saw the Channel as “the straits to the south”, an easy means of getting to the mainland of Europe, through Edward I and the Plantagenets, trying to hold on to their French lands, to English defeat in the Hundred Years’ War, after which the Channel became not a bridge, but a barrier … Fascinating’
Times
‘A witty and revealing look at long-term patterns in British history’
Kirkus
We have got all we want in territory, and our claim to be left in the unmolested enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions, mainly acquired by violence, largely maintained by force, often seems less reasonable to others than to us.
Winston Churchill, 10 January 1914
Trade cannot flourish without security.
Lord Palmerston, 22 April 1860
Unless we change our ways and our direction, our greatness as a nation will soon be a footnote in the history books, a distant memory of an offshore island, lost in the mists of time, like Camelot, remembered kindly for its noble past.
Margaret Thatcher, 1 May 1979
Vote Leave. Take Back Control.
Brexit campaign slogan, 2016
Contents
Copyright
Praise for Island Stories
Epigraph
List of illustrations
Introduction: Brexit Means …?
1. Decline
2. Europe
3. Britain
4. Empire
5. Taking Control of Our Past
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by David Reynolds
About the Publisher
1. ‘Brexit means …’ © Christian Adams (Tim Benson, The Political Cartoon Gallery)
2. ‘Bull and his burdens’, John Tenniel © Punch, 8 February 1879, Vol 76