Flamboyant tycoon Sir Jack Pitman has an idea. Since most tourists are too lazy and unlettered to travel from landmark to landmark, why not simplify things and shrink all of England to the size of a theme park? Unfortunately, Pitman turns out to be right. Located on the Isle of Wight, his reconstituted "England, England" is everything you imagined the original to be, but cleaner, friendlier and more efficient. That is, until the King (the real King, on contract to Sir Jack, living with the rest of the Royal Family in a scaled-down version of Buckingham Palace) is suspected of sexual harassment, a smuggling ring begins to wreak havoc with the island economy and Robin Hood and his Merrie Men decide to unionize. In true Barnes style, England, England is a savage but outrageously funny examination of the search for authenticity and truth in a fabricated world. Review NATIONAL BESTSELLERFINALIST FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE"A ferociously funny send-up of England's chattering classes. . . . England, England not only skewers contemporary Englishness, but reminds us that the novel of ideas still possesses the power to dazzle, provoke, and amuse." -The Globe and Mail"Reading this book is like walking through a hall of mirrors-playfully poised on the one hand, a grotesque myriad of illusions on the other." -The London Express"Dazzling-a novel with mighty themes and a complex structure. This is vintage Barnes." -Toronto Star From the Back Cover "A ferociously funny send-up of England's chattering classes... England, England not only skewers contemporary Englishness, but reminds us that the novel of ideas still possesses the power to dazzle, provoke, and amuse." -- The Globe and Mail"Reading this book is like walking through a hall of mirrors -- playfully poised on the one hand, a grotesque myriad of illusions on the other." -- The London Express (U.K.)"Dazzling -- a novel with mighty themes and a complex structure. This is vintage Barnes." -- The Toronto Star About the Author JULIAN BARNES is the author of numerous books, for which he has received the Booker Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Prix Médicis and Prix Femina. In 2017 he was awarded the Légion d’honneur, and in 2021 the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. He lives in London. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. From the First Chapter                                Pitman house had been true to the architectural principles of its time. Its tone was of secular power tempered by humanitarianism: glass and steel were softened by ash and beech; licks of eau-de-nil and acid yellow gave hints of controlled passion; in the vestibule a dusty-red Corb drum subverted the dominion of hard angles. The supernal atrium objectified the aspirations of this worldly cathedral; while passive ventilation and energy-saving showed its commitment to society and the environment. There was flexibility of spatial use and candid ductwork: according to the architectural team of Slater, Grayson & White, the building combined sophistication of means with transparency of intent. Harmony with nature was another key commitment: behind Pitman House was an area of specially-created wetland. Staff on the decking (hardwood from renewable sources) could eat their sandwiches while inspecting the transient birdlife of the Hertfordshire borders.The architects were accustomed to client intervention; but even they lost a little fluency when glossing Sir Jack Pitman's personal contribution to their design: the insertion at boardroom level of a double-cube office with moulded cornices, shagpile carpet, coal fires, standard lamps, flock wallpaper, oil paintings, curtained faux windows and bobble-nosed light switches. As Sir Jack musingly proposed, 'Rightly though we glory in the capa

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