The most recommended books about the United Kingdom

Angela Harding’s prints contain the essence of the British countryside through the seasons.

Rather than my usual approach to an art book, I tried to resist the temptation to read this lovely work in one sitting, and instead, parceled up each season and unfolded as the year turned.

Curled in a book nook with my cup of tea and her book, looking out of the window and imagining the wildlife in her beautiful prints flitting across my suburban garden.

A Year Unfolding encourages our connection to nature and landscape; it reminds us we must protest and protect nature at all costs. 

On a day trip to Cambridge UK I was in an old book store. I could not believe my good fortune when I spotted an old-worn book entitled Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates. I realised immediately that Pyle was the art teacher of N.C.Wyeth, the styles of the 2 are interchangeable. This book contains numerous Pirate stories, which Pyle wrote himself. Obviously the text is now very antiquated, but there are numerous illustrations illustrating Pirate battles and adventure. Pyle wrote and taught art in the late 19th Century. Any student of the Wyeth’s should check him out.

Written while August Bebel was serving a jail term under Germany’s anti-socialist laws, Woman and Socialism was published in over fifty editions and in more than twenty languages between 1879 and 1914. The first English edition was published in 1908 and became something of a sensation in the United Kingdom and the United States. Unlike other men in the labor movement at the time, Bebel believed that women were the full equals of men and should have the same economic, social, and political rights. More importantly, he argued that socialism would give women economic independence, and that this would allow them more freedom in their personal lives, including in their choice of a sexual partner. The book sometimes feels as radical today as it was 150 years ago.

Outsiders sometimes see us better than we can see ourselves. Such is the case with the three British journalists who covered the tumultuous 1968 presidential campaign that took place during a year of assassinations, civil unrest, and war. Their account detected fault lines in the political system that still emperil us today but also reminds us that—however much we may wring our hands today—we’ve survived more perilous times. 

When I arrived in Oxford in 1998 to begin my doctorate, I knew a bit about English medieval history, but almost nothing about the histories of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. That deficiency was corrected by Prof Rees Davies, at whose feet I was lucky enough to sit. Earlier that same year Rees had delivered the prestigious Ford lectures in Oxford, and they were published two years later as The First English Empire. Deeply learned, but also beautifully written, they are a powerful meditation on centuries when English power expanded aggressively into the rest of the British Isles, and the effects this had on national identities, which continue to resonate to this day.

A Promise of Fireflies is about everything women hold dear about falling in love. You won’t find perfect characters in this book. Ryleigh (the heroine) deals with deep emotional scars, lies, and the difficult challenge of finding a new perspective on life. The rich cast of characters confronts her—dare her—to put her fears to rest and be willing to face a new future. 

The author shows how what we fear the most can trap and keep us from the life and love we desire. The letters will make your heart swell, the poetry will make you cry, and the love will make you long to recapture that first feeling of falling for someone. This enchanting story gives you romance with a capital “R.”

It’s never the plot that draws me to a novel; it’s always other ingredients like people and place and, in these regards, Cranford is a stellar delight. The protagonist is a frequent house guest in the small town of Cranford, giving readers intimate access to the quirky social codes of its mostly female population. From the ones who care about social mores to the ones who care less, these wonderful vignettes document their attempts to outwit a visiting magician, or foil rumored night-burglars, or adapt to the losses of loved ones. Each woman has had a journey in some way stifled by the patriarchy of the 1800s but these ladies’ timeless and absorbing intelligence, compassion, loyalty, ingenuity, forbearance, and above all, wit, shine through.

Writing about the internet is notoriously difficult but Sudjic swings it, sublimely. Although ostensibly set between London and New York, Sympathy almost transcends setting with its focus on millennial Alice Hare’s online haunting of writer Mizuku Himura. After becoming infatuated with Mizuku over Instagram, Alice maneuvers an IRL friendship, which spirals into sexual obsession and possessiveness. It’s a brilliant character study and meditation on alienation, online personas, and the algorithmization of attraction. 

You can always rely on a children’s book published by Usborne, the Big Maze Book by Kirsten Robson is no exception. It offers 50 different mazes to solve, each charmingly illustrated. The mazes themselves are nice and varied, incorporating different settings, different subject matter, and slightly different visual treatments, which all helps to keep solvers interested. As a whole, this book would probably appeal more to younger children who still enjoy picture books. That being said, the mazes do get progressively harder through the book, so there is something there for the slightly older ones too.

This book introduces children to Earth and space and its inhabitants in a gentle way, with whimsical and detailed illustrations that elaborate on the simple text.

I appreciate the messages of compassion, curiosity, and appreciation for others that Oliver Jeffers was trying to share with his newborn son, who inspired this book. The detailed illustrations welcome kids to interact with them, mindfully observing the pages and pointing out little details.