The Invention of Essex: The Making of an English County

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Deeply researched and thoroughly engaging, The Invention of Essex shows that there is more to this fabled English county than meets the eye.

The Invention of Essex by Tim Burrows | Waterstones

Evocative and smart … Essex is often a prism through which England is seen, whether in terms of housing, politics, art or land … beautifully written, with intelligence and heart’— Amy Liptrot, author, * The Instant * You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. An exceptional book by a lucid and sharp-eyed writer with a personal stake in his story. Burrows has a winning way of combining solidarity with critical distance, and an invigorating habit of cutting through the cliches with one sympathetic blast after another. This is Essex for the 21st century but it's also a book about England, and all the better for the fact that it absolutely refuses to be an elegy' If you can visualise the map of Great Britain as a wild-haired angry monster shouting at Ireland, then Essex rests above its rectum, the Thames Estuary. If you were to draw a diagonal line from the south-west of the county to the north-east, it would measure 55 miles in length, although the creeks and inlets on its eastern side make the Essex coastline at least 400 miles. The Essex shore is home to more than 40 islands – although no one can quite agree on exactly how many – with grimly exotic names such as Lower Horse, Cindery and Foulness.

A love letter to a county whose variety and richness is so often overlooked because it fails to adhere to the dreary English ideal of picturesque gentility. Burrows digs deep. He meanders like a creek. Nothing is off limits. It’s a stellar performance. The first picture caption sets the tone: ‘Aerial view of mud’— Jonathan Meades From Loadsamoney and ‘Basildon man’ to Towie and Brexit – Essex has long been held up as both the authentic England and the crudest, stupidest symbol of Englishness. By Tim Burrows By the mid 90s, the threat of Essex girl was everywhere. “Is Diana now an Essex Girl?” the Daily Mail fretted in 1994 while reporting on an editorial in the society magazine Tatler, which begged: “Will the real Diana please sit down, turn off Birds of a Feather, forget the Queen Vic [the pub from East Enders] and dress like a princess.” In the Mail the following day, the writer Anne de Courcy recoiled at the “Sharonisation of Diana”. A roam around the history of England's most infamous county, which dispels lazy myths and reveals a fascinating array of smugglers, radicals and movements. [Tim Burrows] passionately argues that there is much more to Essex than meets the eye' Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the South East England region.

The Invention of Essex - Profile Books

Secrecy came naturally to John le Carré, and there were some secrets that he fought fiercely to keep, nowhere more so than in his private life. Seemingly content in his marriage, the novelist conducted a string of love affairs over four decades. To keep these relationships secret, he made use of tradecraft that he had learned as a spy: code names and cover stories, cut outs, safe houses and dead letter boxes. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. By now, Essex was no longer just a county in south-east England. It was a shorthand for the way the whole country seemed to be changing, for the emergence of a brash and crass new individualism – and soon, it would become a shorthand for the discomfort with those changes, for a fear about what Essex man and his pushy girlfriend threatened to reveal about the true nature of Englishness. Although Essex man voted Conservative, many Conservatives viewed him with a mixture of fear and horror. To some observers, it seemed as if a new kind of English person was taking over – and his rapid ascent, bypassing the traditional requirements of public school education and deference to hierarchy, seemed to threaten the very fabric of the establishment. In 1992, the British society publication Harpers & Queen despaired at how “Essex manners stalked the streets”. Essex man, the magazine noted, embodied a vulgar capitalism that had “eaten into the confidence of the old ruling class and invaded its most sacred enclaves”.The proximity of London and its economic magnetism has caused many places in Essex to become desirable places for workers in the City of London to live. As London grew in the east places such as Barking and Romford were given greater autonomy and created as municipal boroughs. TheBookOfPhobiaaAndManias traces the rich and thought-provoking history in which our fixations have taken shape. Essex. A county both famous and infamous: the stuff of tabloid headlines and reality television, consumer culture and right-wing politicians. England’s dark id. Also at this time the Municipal Borough of Ilford and the Municipal Borough of Wanstead and Woodford were abolished and their area, plus part of the area of Chigwell Urban District (but not including Chigwell itself), were transferred to Greater London to form the London Borough of Redbridge. The Municipal Borough of Romford and Hornchurch Urban District were abolished and their area transferred to Greater London to form the London Borough of Havering. While the truncated remnant of Waltham Abbey was considered as a potential cathedral, elevation of the large parish church at Chelmsford was eventually preferred because of its location at the centre of the new diocese of Essex c.1908. Waltham Abbey remains the County's most impressive piece of mediaeval architecture.

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The Conservative party may have succeeded in identifying the desires of these children of London, but it didn’t offer much to satisfy them. What it offered instead was an illusory promise. “There was this false understanding that Margaret Thatcher was a strong woman who could provide economic opportunities, she understood you wanting to get on,” Basildon’s former MP Angela Smith, who won a majority as Labour returned in 1997, told me. “But the policies were so damaging if you look at unemployment, you look at the industry. Look how Basildon has changed.” Everyone loves a good Essex girl story, don’t they?’ … Tracy Playle in 2001. Photograph: Sean Smith/The GuardianWhen JB Priestley set off on a tour of England in preparation for the book that became English Journey (1934) he avoided Essex. “I would not set foot in Essex,” he wrote emphatically. He wanted to anatomise England and explain its political culture, but he’d seen enough by the time he got to Norfolk. “I was going home,” he continued, “and by the shortest possible route.” A love letter to a county whose variety and richness is so often overlooked because it fails to adhere to the dreary English ideal of picturesque gentility. Burrows digs deep. He meanders like a creek. Nothing is off limits. It's a stellar performance. The first picture caption sets the tone: 'Aerial view of mud''

The Invention of Essex by Tim Burrows review — from the The Invention of Essex by Tim Burrows review — from the

County councils were created in England in 1889. Essex County Council was based in Chelmsford, although it met in London until 1938. Its control did not cover the entire county. The London suburb of West Ham and later East Ham and the resort of Southend-on-Sea became county boroughs independent of county council control. If you are interested in this remarkable microcosm of England, the book will grip you; if you aren't, it will make you realise that you jolly well should be.' Simon Heffer, SpectatorDiscover the fascinating history of the humble notebook, from the bustling markets of medieval Florence to the quiet studies of our greatest thinkers. This is the perfect read for stationery fans and history buffs alike! I may be biased being from Essex and living here all my life, but I loved this! I found it to be a stimulating and fascinating look at the county beyond the stereotypes that are so often thrown our way! Burrows digs beneath the sensationalism and red-top headlines to paint a deeply sensitive and engaging portrait of a misunderstood county and its people’ Quite apart from important towns like Colchester or Chelmsford, many smaller places in Essex exhibit continuity from ancient times. Perhaps the most amusing is the Anglo-Saxon church at Rivenhall, just north of Witham. A nearby, ruined Roman villa probably served as a source for its building materials, and the age of this church was underestimated by Pevsner by about a thousand years. While Birds of a Feather was a warmer and more subtle commentary on class than many remember, the sitcom helped give the world the female counterpart to Essex man, Essex girl. Over time, the names of its lead characters, Sharon and Tracey, came to represent sexually promiscuous and somewhat dim women from the south of the county. Essex girl was permitted even fewer redeeming features than her male counterpart. “If Essex man and Loadsamoney are monstrous figures of entrepreneurial money-making and boom economics,” wrote the University of Roehampton’s Heather Nunn and Anita Biressi in a study of contemporary British culture, “then the Essex girl is a monstrous figure of consumption.”