England on Fire: A Visual Journey through Albion's Psychic Landscape

Bestselling author and online curator Stephen Ellcock selects pivotal images to chart the fiery and chaotic spirit of England as it has developed over several thousand years - and continues to develop. With texts by novelist and musician Mat Osman that reclaim Albion as an unhinged and rebellious magical kingdom that is open to all.

Stephen Ellcock consistently blows my mind - Kara Walker

This is a ground-breaking exploration through images of England's psychic landscapes: of the land itself, scarred by ancient tracks, chalk carvings and standing stones; of the wild places - mountain, moorland and seascape; of the farmlands scattered with medieval churches and ruins; and of the folkloric rituals and occult investigations of the people who inhabit its villages and cities. Whether your family has lived here for four thousand years or for four, we are all castaways on Albion's shore.

The book shares more than two hundred carefully selected images ranging from medieval psalters, to photographs of seasonal celebrations past and present, to stills from iconic television and film, to depictions of the English landscape and soul from a wide range of artists through the centuries. The images are accompanied by texts by Mat Osman woven around the central themes of Ellcock's choices, exploring magic and mazes, ghosts and gardens, shipwrecks and cities. These poetic renderings of a spectral isle together with Ellcock's hallucinatory visual journey reclaim Albion as an eternally unhinged and rebellious magic kingdom - an England on fire.