Our Island Stories

This is a new story of rural Britain and its colonial past, through a series of country walks.

The countryside is almost sacred to many Britons. There is a depth of feeling about rural places, the moors and lochs, valleys and mountains, cottages and country houses. Yet the British countryside, so integral to its national identity, is rarely seen as having anything to do with British colonialism. In Our Island Stories, historian Fowler brings rural life and colonial rule together, with transformative results. 

Empire transformed rural lives – whether in Welsh sheep farms or Cornish copper mines, it offered both opportunity and exploitation. Fowler shows how the booming profits of overseas colonial activities directly contributed to enclosure, land clearances and dispossession. These histories, usually considered separately, continue to link the lives of their descendants now.

To give an honest account, to offer both affection and criticism, is a matter of respect – we should not knowingly tell half a history. This new knowledge of our island stories, once gained, can only deepen Britons' relationship with their beloved landscape.