Rule, Nostalgia: A Backwards History of Britain

** A FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW STATESMAN AND GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR **

'A must read' - Janina Ramirez, bestselling author of Femina

'An eye-opening history of Britain's enduring fixation with its own past' - Jeremy Paxman

'Rule, Nostalgia announces Woods as one of the most interesting new historians of her generation' - Dan Snow


Longing to go back to the 'good old days' is nothing new. For hundreds of years, the British have mourned the loss of tradition and called for a revival of 'simpler', 'better' ways of life, from modern politicians indulging in fantasies of an imperial past, to Victorian artists yearning to retreat into a medieval dream of Merry England. But were the 'good old days' ever quite how we remember them?

Rule, Nostalgia is a surprising, timely new history of Britain that separates the history from the fantasy and traces back to its origins the powerful influence that nostalgia's perpetual backwards glance has had on British history, politics and society.