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Real England: The Battle Against the Bland
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Customer Reviews:
A little one sided but worth the read
I bought this book on the back of Amazon recommending it with Bad Science by Ben Goldacre....and I thought Bad Science was fantastic and so based on this and the reviews from fellow readers I decided to buy it. I never write reviews, but thought that people should understand how one sided this book is, of which the author clearly states at the beginning of the book. I found myself frustrated at the some of the books one sided views....and that perhaps some people do like every high street to be the same.....or whether the majority preferred a gastro pub over an dirty old boozer where the music stops as you walk in...(not that I agree with PubCos)
But despite my moan about its lack of impartiality, the book is well worth a read and makes your really think what England will be like for our kids if we sit back and let things carry on they are.
Reactionary rubbish 
Kingsnorth starts his diatribe by claiming he isnt a reactionary backward looking little englander , then goes on to prove thats exactly what he is.
brief overview 
I ordered this book after having read one chapter of someone else's copy, and got hooked - as that is all I've read of it, can't say a great deal, as I bought it for a friend as a present. But the message is clear about our changing society,and the recorded conversations with people were very illuminating. The style is unusual but successful. as it draws you into the book.
Everyone should read this
This book does for England what Naomi Klein's "No Logo" does for globalisation: it draws together all the things you already know about English life in 2009, and forces you to confront how much we are losing and how quickly we are losing it. Canals, apple varieties, pubs, markets, independent shops and cafés are disappearing at an astonishing rate. Multinationals can do what they like and are accountable to no-one. Local Councils are virtually powerless. Government and the corporate world demand that every aspect of our lives be made to pay for itself, for that is the only way its worth can be gauged.
When you have read this book, you realise just how many aspects of our lives have been blighted. Kingsnorth evokes Cobbett's epithet - "The Thing" to describe what is happening. We have moved on from Left and Right, and Kingsnorth argues that it is time the English stopped being ashamed of themselves, and wrested our identity back from the hands of the racists.
Other reviewers are right, this book will make you angry, but not, I hope, in a negative way. I hope it will affect the way people shop, travel and vote.
Look at your own actions, do not blame corporations
Where do you go to buy your plants, food, books, cds from?
Do you go to your local retailer, in spite of the fact that his/her prices are bound to be higher than the big suppliers?
Or do you buy them form Amazon, Homebase, Tesco... so as to save yourself some penies?
This book shows that the consequences of that simple, daily choise are indeed far reaching and momentous. It would be hypocritical and irresponsable to blame it all on the 'big and nasty corporation', when the fact of the matter is that if they suceed at all is because people like you and me support them with our choices.
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