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A fierce, mordantly funny and perceptive book, from the author of Ship of Fools , about the act of national self-harm known as Brexit. A great democratic country tears itself apart, and indulges in the dangerous pleasures of national masochism.

A mordantly funny and perceptive book about the act of national self-harm known as Brexit. A great democratic country tears itself apart, and engages in the dangerous pleasures of national masochism.

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´A wildly entertaining but uncomfortable read ... Pitilessly brilliant´ JONATHAN COE.

´There will not be much political writing in this or any other year that is carried off with such style´ The Times .

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR.

´A quite brilliant dissection of the cultural roots of the Brexit narrative´ David Miliband.
´Hugely entertaining and engrossing´ Roddy Doyle.
´Best book about the English that I´ve read for ages´ Billy Bragg.

A fierce, mordantly funny and perceptive book about the act of national self-harm known as Brexit. A great democratic country tears itself apart, and engages in the dangerous pleasures of national masochism.

Trivial journalistic lies became far from trivial national obsessions; the pose of indifference to truth and historical fact came to define the style of an entire political elite; a country that once had colonies redefined itself as an oppressed nation requiring liberation.

Fintan O´Toole also discusses the fatal attraction of heroic failure, once a self-deprecating cult in a hugely successful empire that could well afford the occasional disaster. Now failure is no longer heroic - it is just failure, and its terrible costs will be paid by the most vulnerable of Brexit´s supporters.

A new afterword lays out the essential reforms that are urgently needed if England is to have a truly democratic future and stable relations with its nearest neighbours.

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´[O´Toole] is a sharp thinker and he makes many good points ... There is also a lot to learn from his incidental arguments. This is a literary book and I was delighted´ The Times .

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O´Toole, Fintan
Fintan O´Toole is a historian, biographer, literary critic and political commentator. His acclaimed columns on Brexit for the Irish Times , the Guardian and the New York Review of Books have been awarded both the Orwell Prize and the European Press Prize. His books include A Traitor´s Kiss , his life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan; Judging Shaw and White Savage . His investigative, polemical books have all been bestsellers.

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