THE DISCOVERY OF BRITAIN

A discursive and epoch-jumping account of Britain’s identity and history.

Imagine that a well-read uncle pulls you aside after dinner and says that he has something fascinating to show you in his cluttered office. For hours, he lectures you on old maps, revised history, and personal anecdotes from his travels. This hypothetical uncle could be Robb, the author of The Discovery of France, who takes the reader, in his new book, on a haphazard tour through Britain’s history, from the earliest proto-villages to the present day. If you are passionate about the lost details of history and the historian’s dilemma of capturing the elusive, distorted past, you may find Robb’s enthusiasm and nitty-gritty perspective infectious. In preparing the reader for his creative endeavor, the author writes, “No creature or nation lives in chronological order, and so there would be room for the surprising contractions, dilations and reversals of time.” The project’s conception, in its refusal of standard storytelling or historical chronicling, has merit. But some readers will likely find the contracting and dilating approach—interrupted by descriptions of landscapes and explanations of boundaries—to be wearisome. The author shares personal memories that include a nightmare his mother once had, a childhood neighbor’s view, an old book in red leather being passed down by a line of ancient aunts, his father leaving a note for an assistant, his school being older than Eton, and finding an issue of National Geographic in his uncle’s garden shed that reported the discovery of Pluto. The overflow of personal detail—and jokes that often don’t hit—overshadows the narrative thread.

A tedious tale that oscillates between reminiscences and historical facts.