In 1947, the visionary architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis wrote:
Suppose that by some miracle, all the lands and buildings possessed by the National Trust were to be uprooted and set adrift and then, by some further sorcery, reassembled in one fabulous island. That would be magic indeed; the pith and pick of England close-packed into a compass smaller than that of the Isle of Wight, yet sampling all that we most prize. (Williams-Ellis, 1947: 13)
Just over 50 years later, Julian Barnes, one of the most popular and critically acclaimed contemporary British novelists, turned this idea into a best-selling novel, England England, which was duly shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction for 1998.
England England is divided into three parts. The first, “Anglia”, introduces the readers to the novel’s main protagonist, Martha Cochrane, as...
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Citation: Berberich, Christine. "England, England". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 October 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5348, accessed 09 June 2026.]
