Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting
The Full English by Stuart Maconie
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

The Full English

A Journey in Search of a Country and its People

$29.39

Get for $14.99 with membership
Narrator Stuart Maconie

This audiobook uses AI narration.

Weโ€™re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
Length 12 hours 26 minutes
Language English
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

A Sunday Times Book of the Week and Top 10 Bestseller
A Times bestseller
A Waterstones Paperback of the Year 2024
A Spectator Book of the Year

What kind of country is England today?


What does it mean to be English?


Are we hungry for change or seeking old certainties?

Join Stuart Maconie on an enlightening, entertaining journey through England, from Bristol's Banksy to Durham's beaches, from Cotswolds corduroy to Stoke's oatcakes.
As his guide, Maconie walks in the footsteps of J.B. Priestley's classic travelogue, English Journey, to explore our national identity and how it has evolved over the last century. On his way, Stuart takes inspiration from the people he meets at bus stops and train stations, cafes and corner shops.
Travelling the length of the land, Maconie explores the differences between city and town, north and south, and examines our past and present with affection and insight. Whether heโ€™s passing the boutique hotels of Manchester, the moors of Ilkley or the grand houses of Tynemouth, looking out over misty fens or urban skylines, he shines a light on the people who make these places and asks what the future holds for them. Along the way, he uncovers local heroes and secret histories over early breakfasts and last orders.
Through his journey, he lets us see our homes and habits, hopes and eccentricities with fresh eyes. The Full English challenges us to embrace the messy, shifting and diverse nature of England, and to ask ourselves what kind of country we want to be.

Stuart Maconie is a writer, broadcaster and journalist familiar to millions from his work in print, on radio and on TV. His previous bestsellers have included Cider with Roadies, Pies and Prejudice and Adventures on the High Teas. He hosts a show for BBC Radio 6 Music (with Mark Radcliffe) every weekend morning between 8 and 11am.Based in Birmingham and Manchester, he can also often be spotted on top of a mountain in the Lake District with a Thermos flask and individual pork pie. He is a champion ice skater and once shared a van with Napalm Death.

Stuart Maconie is a writer, broadcaster and journalist familiar to millions from his work in print, on radio and on TV. His previous bestsellers have included Cider with Roadies, Pies and Prejudice and Adventures on the High Teas. He hosts a show for BBC Radio 6 Music (with Mark Radcliffe) every weekend morning between 8 and 11am.Based in Birmingham and Manchester, he can also often be spotted on top of a mountain in the Lake District with a Thermos flask and individual pork pie. He is a champion ice skater and once shared a van with Napalm Death.

Illustration of person sitting

Shop small, give big!

With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.

Start gifting
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

Reviews

โ€˜Maconie is a funny, astute writer, alert to the absurd.โ€™ Sunday Times Book of the Week โ€˜Observant and witty.โ€™ The Times โ€˜The deceptive lightness and accessibility of Maconieโ€™s writing lead us gently through what is actually a deep dive into this most mysterious of peoples.โ€™ Jonathan Coe 'Chatty and cheerful.' Graham Robb โ€˜Thoughtful and characteristically entertaining.โ€™ Waterstones Books of the Year โ€˜Maconie catches the exhausted national mood beautifully.โ€™ New Statesman โ€˜Takes the temperature of the English at this point in time.โ€™ Hugo Rifkind โ€˜This might be Maconieโ€™s best book yet. โ€ฆ What a treat to read such a clear-eyed but warm-hearted evocation of the country.โ€™ Daily Express 'Maconie makes for a chatty, amiable travelling companion and the portrait he paints of contemporary England is a quietly progressive one.' The Herald Praise for Stuart Maconieโ€ฆ โ€˜As funny as Bryson and as wise as Orwell.โ€™ The Observer โ€˜The best thing to come out of Wigan since the A58 to Bolton.โ€™ Peter Kay โ€˜A fine writer: sharp, funny, tender and thoughtful.โ€™ The Spectator โ€˜A funny, lyrical writer who prefers to persuade rather than browbeat.โ€™ Mail on Sunday โ€˜Maconie's engaging, conversational prose is full of telling detail, jokes and deft quotation.โ€™ The Telegraph Expand reviews
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores! Start gifting