With the British Empire gone, Brexit looming and the break-up of the United Kingdom a possibility, there's no better time to discover the true history of England.

In the latest addition to the acclaimed Shortest History series, James Hawes demonstrates that the whole sweep of a national story can be captured in a pacy narrative packed with maps and graphics, throwing striking new light on the present day.

A gallop through England's past shows that it is shot through with ancient fault lines, locked into European history and overlaid with that most English of factors- class.

The world's most successful colonial culture has been rife with tension and challenge, from the Roman invasion through the Britons, Anglo-Saxons and Danes; to the Norman Conquest, the Anglo-French Empire and the Reformation; to the Empire and the wars of the twentieth century; and up to the question-filled present.