Who Are We Now? cover art

Who Are We Now?

Stories of Modern England

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Who Are We Now?

By: Jason Cowley
Narrated by: Jason Cowley, Thomas Judd
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About this listen

A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year 2022

Jason Cowley, editor-in-chief of the New Statesman, examines contemporary England through a handful of the key news stories from recent times to reveal what they tell us about the state of the nation and to answer the question Who Are We Now?

Spanning the years since the election of Tony Blair’s New Labour government to the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, the book investigates how England has changed and how those changes have affected us. Cowley weaves together the seemingly disparate stories of the Chinese cockle-pickers who drowned in Morecambe Bay, the East End Imam who was tested during a summer of terror, the pensioner who campaigned against the closure of her GP’s surgery and Gareth Southgate’s transformation of English football culture. And in doing so, Cowley shows the common threads that unite them, whether it is attitudes to class, nation, identity, belonging, immigration, or religion.

He also examines the so-called Brexit murder in Harlow, the haunting repatriation of the fallen in the Iraq and Afghan wars through Wootton Bassett, the Lancashire woman who took on Gordon Brown, and the flight of the Bethnal Green girls to Islamic State, fleshing out the headlines with the very human stories behind them.

Through these vivid and often moving stories, Cowley offers a clear and compassionate analysis of how and why England became so divided and the United Kingdom so fragmented, and how we got to this cultural and political crossroads. Most importantly, he also shows us the many ways in which there is genuine hope for the future.

©2022 Macmillan Publishers International Limited (P)2022 Macmillan Publishers International Limited
Europe Great Britain Political Science Politics & Government England Government Middle East

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Critic reviews

"A beautiful piece of storytelling - the British eyed from unexpected places, from China to the middle of the middle of the middle. The question will never go away but these answers help us a lot." (Andrew Marr)

"As someone who zips around England - and the wider UK every week - this book really resonates with me. Wonderfully written with colourful and incisive accounts of contemporary England." (Chris Mason, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Any Questions?)

All stars
Most relevant  
I enjoyed the factual style of writing. Certain aspects made me so angry and disappointed in how this government has been able to pull the wool over the voters’ eyes. How naive and gullible the general public are. And, how worrying that we appear to be sleepwalking into, and accepting the dangerous right wing politics of the Tories, as the norm for our society.

Very thought provoking

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Interesting but rather “self indulgent “. Long narrative to raise more questions may be the purpose but it fundamentally fails to address its title. Listen for interest but not much clarity.

Raises more questions than answers in an indulgent mire rather than providing clarity- may be that’s just how it is?

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