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£8.99
Published
6 April 2021
PB
9781913083021
Ebook
9781910400685
Press Release
 

WELCOME TO ESSEX: THE COUNTY EVERYONE’S HEARD OF; THE PLACE FEW OF US KNOW

Gillian Darley takes us on a vivid, personal tour, from the seaside piers to the empty marshes and the New Town tower blocks, revealing a landscape and a story like no other.

Alongside Essex Man and TOWIE, there’s the Essex that nurtured the first Puritan settlers in America, welcomed refugees from Europe, fugitives from the underworld and bombed-out EastEnders. Where dreamers and makers, punk poets, anarchist sects and inventors all found inspiration.

A Colchester nurseryman was the first to trade with a secretive Eastern Kingdom. Braintree’s only earthquake inspired an innovative building system. In Epping, a spat over firewood led to an historic victory for the common people. In Essex, the clash between city and countryside, capital and province, created a shower of sparks that ultimately set the world on fire.

Drawing on everything from early maps to reality TV, Excellent Essex is no guide book, but a wonderful guide to England’s most misunderstood county.

INCLUDES ILLUSTRATED ‘WALKS & WANDERS’ SECTION WITH LINKS TO ONLINE ROUTES.
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Old Street Publishing Excellent Essex PB

WELCOME TO ESSEX: THE COUNTY EVERYONE’S HEARD OF; THE PLACE FEW OF US KNOW

Gillian Darley takes us on a vivid, personal tour, from the seaside piers to the empty marshes and the New Town tower blocks, revealing a landscape and a story like no other.

Alongside Essex Man and TOWIE, there’s the Essex that nurtured the first Puritan settlers in America, welcomed refugees from Europe, fugitives from the underworld and bombed-out EastEnders. Where dreamers and makers, punk poets, anarchist sects and inventors all found inspiration.

A Colchester nurseryman was the first to trade with a secretive Eastern Kingdom. Braintree’s only earthquake inspired an innovative building system. In Epping, a spat over firewood led to an historic victory for the common people. In Essex, the clash between city and countryside, capital and province, created a shower of sparks that ultimately set the world on fire.

Drawing on everything from early maps to reality TV, Excellent Essex is no guide book, but a wonderful guide to England’s most misunderstood county.

INCLUDES ILLUSTRATED ‘WALKS & WANDERS’ SECTION WITH LINKS TO ONLINE ROUTES.
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 8.99
 
 

'Original and beautifully written… the celebration that the Essex diaspora has been waiting for… filled with genuine feeling for Essex people and places'
—Guardian

 
 
  • 'Darley has a fine sense of history and an appreciation of architecture and landscape, and all this comes through in her fact-packed and often entertaining book'
    —Spectator
  • 'A delightful new biography of Essex… akin to barrelling through Essex lanes in an open-topped sports car while Darley swigs from a hip flask yelling "Ask me anything"'
    —Observer
  • 'A loving treatment of a slice of England… [Essex] will now be a little less misunderstood'
    —Literary Review
  • 'A sort of revelation… a generally stellar performance'
    —Jonathan Meades, History Today
  • 'A sparkling progress of personal anecdote, witty commentary and discreetly footnoted history… Even if you've never been there, you may find yourself reading passages out loud and dreaming of Epping Forest — or even Butlin's'
    —Country Life
  • 'Darley illuminates the landscape and its inhabitants, revealing how generations of people wanting to escape social conventions and limitations have been drawn to those vast, open horizons. The book is as thrillingly eclectic as Essex itself'
    —Francis Wheen
  • 'Darley's account of an eccentric, eclectic and extreme county is excellently delivered'
    —RIBA Journal
  • 'An omnivorous miscellany: a gathering of vastly diverse anecdotes, observations and historical footnotes…A pleasure to read'
    —Architectural Review
 
 
Gillian Darley

Gillian Darley grew up on the Essex-Suffolk borders, and consequently has a love of distant horizons and towering skies. A writer, teacher and broadcaster with wide-ranging interests, she lives in Essex and London and is the author of several acclaimed books, including Villages of Vision: A Study of Strange Utopias, Vesuvius: The Most Famous Volcano In The World and John Soane: An Accidental Romantic.