Have just finished reading Earls of Paradise by Adam Nicolson. I borrowed it from the local library as I cannot physically fit any more purchased books into the house. I am also spending far too much money on books and need to stop.
Although ostensibly a local study of the Wilton estate in Wiltshire, Adam Nicolson has written an important conceptual book about English identity. In particular he has analysed the idea of the English "arcadia" as a cultural phenomenon. I think it is one of the most significant books published in 2008.
There is so much detail in the book that it is easy to become distracted and not see the message this "dream landscape of Elizabethan England" has for modern times. The creation of the English arcadia was an exercise in creative visualisation. Adam Nicolson defines this in the phrase: "only the poets can deliver a golden world".
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