Who Owns England? (Book review)
It has been quite a while since I shared a review of a book that is not directly related to international development. But Guy Shrubsole’s Who Owns England? How We Lost Our Green & Pleasant Land & How To Take It Back makes for a great exception-especially as some readers may still be compiling their summer reading lists. One of the reasons I enjoyed his book so much is that content and form align really well. The topic of English landownership is timely and important and Shrubsole manages really well to take the more technical task of measuring land ownership across different ownership groups to the next level by presenting an engaging narrative full of small details and big numbers, woven into a text that combines research, journalism and activism very well. Little has changed since the days of the Domesday Book Right from the start we are reminded that the history of landownership is not simply about abstract, technical or physical transactions, but opens up deep-rooted