England is Mine: Pop Life in Albion from Wilde to Goldie

by Michael Bracewell

A blistering, brilliant and utterly original explanation of the Englishness of English pop culture in the twentieth century. An ambitious mould-breaking book on Englishness which abandons the false distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture in favour of a borderless world where pop music and sculpture, literature and film, TV and painting are all accorded the same respect, and are part of the same vision. Here is the triumphant vindication of the alienated suburban dandy. A cast of thousands, a gallery of Britain’s finest and lariest, the Pet Shop Boys, Evelyn Waugh, the Fall, T-Rex, Larkin, EM Forster, Powell & Pressburger, Pink Floyd, Dexy’s, 2-Tone, the Jam, Virginia Woolf, The Carry On Films, The Slits, Bowie, Kate Bush, Fun Boy Three, Wyndham Lewis, The Human League, Rachel Whiteread, Buzzcocks, Graham Greene, Alan Bennett, Sillitoe, X-Ray Spex, Mark Almond, etc, etc.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Current Affairs, Cultural Studies

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Alex Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff, if you ever wondered about the connection between Oscar Wilde and the English pop underground. A bit strained in my view, but if you want to know about groups called the Slits and Plastic Raincoat, now's your chance. As a bonus, there's no enclosed CD, so you don't feel obliged to listen to the music.

[Magdalena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Bracewell is an excellent writer and I got lost in his brilliant style, thus not really enganging in the actual text. Books about pop culture are not only a reminder of our own history, bearing the ideas of ourselves, but they also remind us of our worldwide pop-cultural heritage. The inside of pop-culture shows us all the knowledge of the world we encontered during our youth, whilst the historical parallels tells us about the background, the artistic styles and development, society and culture in general. Popmusic is an everyday article which can show us a whole world. I loved this book even if I ha problems in relating to some of the stories as they are very British in a way that didn´t fully resonate with me (being a Scandinavian) although I could fully follow the general tendencies.

[Rowena Macdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. Bracewell writes beautifully.

[Neil P · Rating 4 out of 5]

the quality and quantity of bracewell's writing is brilliant. He has the right measure of verbose commentary and i love some of his word-creations. I was disappointed by the chronological charting of british culture but only because it quickly makes the book seem like well-trodden ground.

[Bookthesp1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, eclectic and beautifully written and referenced. Highly recommended.!!