David Baker

In its time, this was the most famous novel of many about the continent of Atlantis. In our day, nearly a century later, it must still rank as one of the best. Vivid prose describes the geological upheaval that ended a civilization. Characters are totally believable and utterly unforgettable.

"Arthur Kenneth Chesterton, cousin of G. K. Chesterton, was a leading member of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists who later became the first leader of the National Front. Chesterton's life and career spanned the inter- and post-war period. He grew up in South Africa, fought in the First World War and by the age of 21 had begun to experience a powerful sense of disillusionment with the peace, missing the classless comradeship and shared sense of purpose of the trenches and finding his own 'colonial outsider' mentality with its idealized vision of England increasingly at odds with postwar British society. As a literary critic and the editor of a provincial newspaper in the 1920s, Chesterton's sense of cultural despair deepened and reading classic works of English literature became a source of escape and a further opportunity to lose himself in fantasies of an older, better England. By 1933, Chesterton had discovered fascism."--BOOK JACKET. "David Baker's new biography explores the powerful historical, social and intellectual background to Chesterton's life and career. He places Chesterton in the wider context of British fascism to explore the question of why fascist ideology proved so compelling among leading figures of the British establishment - attracting not just the weak and marginalized and social misfits, but those who occupied self-assured and prominent roles in British society. Through the life of one leading fascist, Baker looks at the violent racist, anti-semitic and conspiratorial expression of British fascism and suggests that a definition of fascist ideology must be broadened to take account of its emergence in a liberal democratic society."--BOOK JACKET.

This study, by a host of leading experts, provides the most up-to-date analysis of the often problematic relationship between various elements of British political culture and the developing European Union. The book opens with a general review of the history of this relationship since 1950, by Andrew Gamble. This is followed by ten chapters by other leading researchers, each examining a particular aspect of the relationship, including the view of Britain from Europe, the attitudes of Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democratic parties, the Scottish and Welsh Nationalist parties, the Trade Unions, Business, the Civil Service, and the media.

This book centres on the effects of the political and later economic crisis which seriously affected the European Union and its impact on the seemingly endless UK debate over Britain's position within the EU.