Who are the English? And what images spring to mind when you think of the English and England? Ask a tourist and they would probably say Big Ben, English 'bobbies', the London Eye or maybe even the Queen. Ask a Scot, Welshmen or Irishman and you may get a different answer. However, ask an Englishman (or woman) and you will probably get more intimate (and printable) answers ...mowing the lawn, going down the pub or maybe braving the beach on a frigid summer's day. Ask Chris Steele-Perkins and he'll have a multitude of answers and what's more, as an internationally acclaimed and award-winning Magnum photographer of 40 years.

 In this book, Chris presents a sweeping, unique record of what he thinks makes England truly English. From Sunday cricket matches to snoozes in a deckchair; intimate family portraits to carefree children at play; circus shows with performing bears to the wilder performers of a street carnival; and from Saturday night dancing to race riots. Each picture tells a story of time and place and many of the images collected will strike a chord or a memory in the viewer.

This is an honest testament to this odd but magnificent country that is England - the England of the people.

‘Documentary approach that shows the English at work and at play over the last four decades. By turns gritty and evocative, it is a book one imagines that Orwell would have liked very much.’ The Guardian, Photobooks of the Year 2009

‘The book contains some strong and touching images, and is very good on some key points in the difficult evolution of a multicultural nation.’ British Journal of Photography

‘It captures the little triumphs and larger miseries of the lives of ordinary people - the poor and the upwardly mobile, the idle and the abandoned.’ New Statesman

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