'Lively and fascinating. I loved it' David Bellos, author of Is That a Fish in your Ear?'A history of the world in microcosm ... I highly recommend' Douglas Preston, author of The Lost City of the Monkey God'A real detective story ... a tour de force' David Crystal, author of A Date with Language

A TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘A diligent historian and a superb writer’ THE TIMES A gripping new history of the making of England as a nation.