When a book advertises itself as a "short" history of England, and has 280 odd pages to fit everything in, one obvious upshot is that certain periods are covered in a brief blizzard of names and places. I found this highly confusing and hard to follow in the parts of our history i had absolutely no idea about (ie everything pre 1066), and to be honest, having only just finished the book, I still can't remember that much about that period.

Where I enjoyed the book much more was in covering periods in which I had a rough idea of events, or subjects i had a sketchy knowledge of. If you are looking to improve your knowledge of our history in that way, to fill in the gaps between the bits you did at school, then this book is really excellent.

Simon Jenkins is a good writer, and - subject to the point above re the torrent of names and places, which is pretty much unavoidable - does an excellent job of conveying a huge amount of information in an informative, witty and memorable style.

I now know that in the 1730s there was 1 gin house for every 11 dwellings in London. That fact alone makes the book worth reading.

a sprint through english history that tries to walk the line between the history of kings/queens/parliaments and the history of the people but tends to generalise. enjoyable nonetheless & gives me absolute confirmation that i can't stand 18/19th century history.