We see the signs around us every day: the chain cafes and superstores that dominate our high streets; the decline of small farms and the loss of post offices; the headlines about yet another traditional industry going to the wall. Now, for the first time, here is a book that makes the connection between these isolated, incremental, local changes and the bigger picture of a nation whose identity is being eroded.
As he travels around the country meeting fruit-growers, lock keepers, stall owners and the inhabitants of Chinatown, Paul Kingsnorth records the kind of conversations that are taking place in country pubs and corner shops across the land - while warning us that, unless we act, such quintessentially English institutions may cease to exist.