In The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst explored the iconoclasm of the Thatcher years. But in A Stranger's Child, he seems to portray England as a country self-defeatingly focused on its past
The British media are now defensively acknowledging a post-imperial constitutional threat they have been silencing for decades.
Notions of 'England' have traditionally elevated certain citizens, from certain areas - London, the Home Counties, university towns. So why should 'the regions' invest in an English national identity?
The author of the first major contemporary critique of the monarchy looks over his argument as Scotland moves towards independence under a shared crown and inaugurates a new debate 'For England's Sake!'
