England, england | julian barnes

As every schoolboy knows, you can fit the whole of England on the Isle of Wight.

Grotesque, visionary tycoon Sir Jack Pitman takes the saying literally and does exactly that.

He constructs on the island The Project, a vast heritage centre containing everything English, from Big Ben to Stonehenge, from Manchester United to the white cliffs of Dover.

The project is monstrous, risky, and vastly successful.

In fact, it gradually begins to rival Old England and even threatens to supersede it.

One of Barness finest and funniest novels, England, England calls into question the idea of replicas, truth vs fiction, reality vs art, nationhood, myth-making, and self-exploration.