The Discovery of Britain
An Accidental History
$28.99
- Paperback
464 pages
- Release Date
3 November 2026
Summary
‘Robb has found a new format for writing history just as Craig Brown found a fresh way to write biography’ - Alan Johnson ‘Rarely does history feel so beguiling’ - The Observer ‘A treasure house of a book’ - The Spectator
Taking you on a time-travelling adventure around the ‘spindly, sea-wracked islands’ we call home, The Discovery of Britain is history that’s panoramic and intimate, poignant and shocking, seriously funny, and enlightening in the most surprising way.
…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781035026135 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1035026139 |
| Author: | Graham Robb |
| Publisher: | Pan Macmillan |
| Imprint: | Picador |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 464 |
| Release Date: | 3 November 2026 |
| Weight: | 400g |
| Dimensions: | 36mm x 130mm x 202mm |
| Audience Age: | 18 |
You Can Find This Book In
Critics Review
Rarely does history feel so beguiling * The Observer *
Filled with curiosities … Ambitious, with a tinge of eccentricity and perfectly grown-up enough to sustain the occasional disagreement, this is a rich pleasure of a book. – Philip Hensher * The Spectator *
Robb tumbles into British history with an infectious enthusiasm … immensely entertaining – Chris Bryant, author of The Glamour Boys
Written with a characteristic mix of confidence, self- effacement, intelligence and humour, The Discovery of Britain is as charming as it is informative. * TLS *
Remarkable … a book as much about the experience of history as history itself … Learned and likeable. * The Sunday Times *
Meticulous, contrary … Robb has the superb ability of taking a single off-kilter subject and widening it out to illuminate something much larger. * Shortlist *
A dazzling and dizzyingly wonderful roam through Britain’s past. This is history writing as you’ve never read it before – enchanting and truly exciting.’ – Jack Cornish, author of The Lost Paths
Engagingly rediscovers Britain’s past in unexpected ways, melding memory and observation with history and geography. – Brian Groom, author of Made in Manchester
A history where everything is somehow still present and all at once, colourful and jostling along, like a tapestry that draws you close. – Garrett Carr, author of The Boy from the Sea
A master geographer of the oldest and newest forms of life on a ‘sodden, self-aggrandizing island outpost’. * The Washington Post *
Graham Robb
Graham Robb was born in Manchester in 1958 and is a former fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He has published widely on French literature and history. His book The Discovery of France won both the Duff Cooper and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prizes. For Parisians, the City of Paris awarded him the Grande Médaille de la Ville de Paris. He lives on the English-Scottish border. The Discovery of Britain is his tenth book.
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.