It is the gentry that have made England what it was and, to a degree, still is. England was a country dominated by its middling families, rooted on their land, in their locality, with a healthy interest in turning a profit from their property and a deep distrust of the centralised state. This riveting new book concentrates on fourteen families with a time-span from 1400 to the present day; The Gentry presents a convincing argument on what has created the distinctive English character but with the sheer readability ofan epic novel.