‘A formidable, fearless and important book’ Robert Macfarlane

Who owns Britain?

Behind this basic question lies this country’s oldest and best-kept magic formula. This is actually the history of how England’s top notch came to personal our land, and an motivating manifesto for how exactly to open up our countryside once again.

This book is a very long time coming. Since 1086, in fact. For centuries, England’s elite have got protected up how about Who Owns England?: How We Shed Our Green and Pleasant Land, and How to Consider It Back again they got their hands on millions of acres of our land, by constructing walls, burying research and recently, sheltering behind offshore shell companies. But with the dawn of digital mapping and the Independence of Information Act, it’s becoming increasingly problematic for them to hide.

Trespassing through tightly-guarded country estates, ecologically ravaged grouse moors and bare Mayfair mansions, writer and activist Man Shrubsole has used these 21st century tools to uncover an abundance of never-before-seen information regarding the people who own our land, to create probably the most comprehensive map of property ownership in England that has have you been made public.

From secret army islands to tunnels deep beneath London, Shrubsole unearths truths concealed since the Domesday Book about who’s really responsible for this country – at a time when Brexit is meant to be returning sovereignty to the people. Melding background, politics and polemic, he vividly demonstrates how taking control of land ownership is key to tackling from the housing crisis to climate change – and even halting the erosion of our very democracy.

It is time to expose the reality about who owns Britain – and finally take back our green and pleasant property.