Ranging from an expedition down a coal mine to a chastening experience of colonial rule in Burma, and from a witty study of murder reportage in the British tabloids to a grim account of life inside a workhouse. Culminating with Orwell’s masterpiece on English socialism, ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’, the essays in this collection are a testament to the fascinating peculiarities of English culture. Together, they say as much about what England could aspire to be as the state that it has found itself in.