This is an agreeable narrative, easy to read, of the history of the English nation through twenty centuries. It is intended for the reader who wants a comprehensive survey that brings out the important lines of development but does not clog the story with too many facts, dates, treaties and battles. Underlying the account is a professional scholar"s acquaintance with historical scholarship, conveyed as a stimulating succession of ideas. The reader gets a strong sense of the evolution of English society: the mixture of law, custom and innovation in its constitutional history; its curious blend of characteristics. There are numerous lively - and sometimes surprising - quotations from the sources. Its compass is the whole field of English history from the Roman occupation to the end of the nineteenth century; a brief postscript brings the story up to the present day.