Rebecca Mead – Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival

As the Union of Home Countries looks wobbly, and more Commonwealth nations seek independence, we’re asking where that leaves England. Once world power house and now looking decidedly isolated, do we just need to get our mojo back? Or do we need to stop thinking we’ve an empire and trying to punch above our weight? And why does being proud to be English sound less patriotic than disturbingly nationalistic? The editor of The New Statesman, Jason Cowley (author of Who Are We Now?), talks with Rebecca Mead, returning New Yorker journalist and author of Home/Land, about who and where we are now, and our existential lack of confidence as we redefine ourselves in the world, and explores how we get comfortable with the reality that being English now comes in many shapes, colours and sizes.