An impassioned rallying cry against the increasing homogenisation of the world around us, Paul Kingsnorth’s book at once engages and enrages. The quest for ‘real’ England takes Kingsnorth  on a journey throughout  Britain. En route, he meets both campaigners fighting to save things precious to them and the corporate officials whose policies are resulting in the ‘blandification’ (to coin a phrase) of Britain, a series of encounters which give  the book its structure and its vitality.

An effective  communicator, Kingsnorth evokes  both what he loves – an ancient apple orchard,  the Oxford Canal – and what he loathes. The shiny surrealism of the vast Bluewater  Shopping Centre in Kent is described with the shrewd, observant  eyes of a visitor  from another planet. Bluewater is, he realises,  a place where ‘Everything is controlled.’

He describes the transformation of the traditional, sleepy old pubs where old men could sit nursing pints to noisy, hectic  bars aimed at youngsters, how backwater  canals  are being ‘regenerated’ as sites of glitzy waterside  residences, how independent  retailers are being replaced by chain stores and huge shopping centres and the privatisation of public space by city councils. As one reads the book, a grim realisation of how all these different trends are converging  to create conformity  rises to the surface. The extent of Kingsnorth’s travels,  taking in both teeming cities such as London and Liverpool and tiny, rural villages, shows how all pervasive  is the phenomenon he’s describing. The book offers an alarming insight into how the richness and variety of life is being sucked out of the society around us.

The only ray of hope that Real England offers is that all over England,  people are fighting back. From the campaign to save London’s vibrant Queen’s Market in Newham from insensitive  ‘redevelopment’ to a community shop in Sulgrave,  Northamptonshire,  Kingsnorth finds people who care deeply for what is being lost.  On being interviewed  by Kingsnorth, the eloquence  of these campaigners is striking; the depth of their feeling leaps off the page. It is in these people that Kingsnorth himself finds some hope for the future.

A book which deplores the bland and complacent  should be lively, individual and heartfelt  – a literary feat which Kingsland pulls off with panache. In describing the way in which we are losing the humdrum, the quirky and the treasured,  Kingsnorth has succeeded brilliantly in writing a vivid,  personal book  – one whose message stays with you long after you’ve finished actually reading the pages.

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