Paul Readman is Professor of Modern British History at King's College London. He is author of Land and Nation: Patriotism, National Identity and the Politics of Land (2008). His other publications include, as co-editor, The Land Question in Britain (2010), Borderlands in World History, 1700–1914 (2014) and Walking Histories, 1800–1914 (2016), as well as many articles and essays. As a keen walker and perpetual tourist, he has a long-standing interest in the diverse ways that human experience shapes, and is shaped by, landscape and place.

• Introduction; Part I. Borders: 1. The cliffs of Dover; 2. The Northumbrian borderland; Part II. Preservation: 3. The Lake District; 4. The New Forest; Part III. Beyond the South Country: 5. Manchester: shock landscape?; 6. The Thames; Conclusion.

'Paul Readman argues convincingly that other scholars have neglected the importance of the lived environment in shaping cultural nationalism, focusing too heavily on written histories and commemorative events and activities … Readman's monograph is a tour de force, wide ranging and convincing in its central arguments.' Rosemary Michell, American Historical Review