Island Story

What is life like on this island? With a tent and a rusty bike, J.D. Taylor set off to find out.

No other subject has spilt so much ink as Britain today. But whilst assuming a monopoly on national identity, a London-based elite has proven a poor forecaster of the political weather around the island. Fed up with endless pontifications on what British people outside the capital might be thinking, JD Taylor decided to go and ask them.

Sceptical and inquisitive, Taylor cycled all round Britain, interviewing and staying with strangers from all walks of life. Without a map and travelling with the most basic of kit, the journey revels in serendipity and schadenfreude. Island Story weaves histories, experiences and ideas to tell another kind of story: one of rebellion and retail parks, migration and inertia, pessimism and disappearing ways of life, and a fiery, unrealised desire for collective belonging and power.

Think you know the UK? Island Story will make you think again.