Some politicians will still talk of restoring an English birthright of liberty and the swashbuckling self-confidence to rule the waves. Others yearn for the old-fashioned morality which they claim once civilised a savage world or want to look inwards to a story of an enchanted island that can stand alone and isolated against the world. But England, by Tom Baldwin, the bestselling biographer of Keir Starmer, and Marc Stears, an influential think tank head, unravels the myths that have distorted ideas of this country and provided ammunition for culture warriors from both left and right.

Instead of vainly promising to solve everything all at once, Baldwin and Stears provide clues for how a humbler, less grandiose, set of ideas rooted in real lives can help fix some of the things that have gone so badly wrong in recent years. They travel from muddy fields in the Home Counties to the ports of Plymouth and Hull. They visit the old industrial heartland of Wolverhampton, spend weekends in the worn-down seaside resort of Blackpool, then gaze up the gleaming towers of modernity on the edge of London and the dreaming spires of Oxford.

Along the way, they speak with many different people who tell stories of England, including politicians Nigel Farage and David Lammy, campaigner Chrisann Jarrett, playwright James Graham and scientist Sarah Gilbert. What emerges is a startlingly fresh and vivid picture of an old country that belongs to everyone, or at least, to no one in particular.