What is Nigel Farage's favourite novel? Why do Brexiteers love Sherlock Holmes? Is Philip
Larkin the best Brexit poet ever? Through the politically relevant side-road of English
Literature John Sutherland quarries the great literary minds of English history to assemble
the ultimate reading list for Brexiteers. What happened to Britain on 24 June 2016 shook the
country to its roots. The Brexit vote changed Britain. But despite its referendum victory
Brexit is peculiarly hollow. It is an idea without political apparatus without sustaining
history without field-tested ideology. Without thinkers. It is like Frankenstein waiting for
the lightning bolt. In this irreverent and entertaining new guide Sutherland suggests some
stuffing for the ideological vacuity at the heart of the Brexit cause. He looks for jingoistic
meaning in the work of William Shakespeare Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy in modern classics
like The Queen and I and London Fields and in the national anthem school songs and great
poetry of the country. Sutherland explores what Britain meant means and will mean and subtly
shows how great literary works have a shaping influence on the world. Witty and insightful and
with a preface by John Crace this book belongs on the shelves of all good bragging Brexiteers
and many diehard Remoaners too.
