The Countryside: Ten Rural Walks Through Britain and Its Hidden History of Empire

An Air Mail Editors’ Pick

Ten walks through idyllic scenery reveal rural Britain’s forgotten links to transatlantic slavery and colonialism—a “revelatory travelogue-cum-exposé” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) that will transform our understanding of the English countryside and its heritage.

For centuries, the green fields, rugged highlands, and rolling hills of England, Scotland, and Wales have captured the global imagination as backdrops for the tales of adventure and seclusion that have become enduring symbols of British culture. But beneath the romantic perception of these rural locales—grand country estates, shoreline villages, and inland hamlets alike—is a past and present irrevocably shaped by British transatlantic slavery and colonialism.

Over the course of ten country walks, scholar Corinne Fowler explores the unique colonial dimensions of British labor history, from agriculture to copper-mining, coastal trade to factory work. One route explores banking history in Southern England and its link to slavery on Louisianan plantations; another uncovers the historical impact of sugar profits on the Scottish isles and 18th-century tobacco imports on an English port. Each walk not only offers a fascinating exploration of the heart of British rural life, but also exposes its inextricable connection to colonial activity in the farthest reaches of the British empire.

Accompanying the author on her walks are a fascinating group of people—artists, musicians, and writers—with strong attachments to the landscapes featured in this book and family links to former British colonies like Barbados and Senegal. Alongside these companions, Fowler illuminates the meaning of colonial history in local settings. Crucially, this is not just a history book but “a deftly critical, readable contribution to the historiography of empire” (Kirkus Reviews)—a compassionate reflection on the way we respond to sensitive, shared histories which link people across cultures, generations, and political divides.

Corinne Fowler is Professor of Colonialism and Heritage in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. In 2020, Corinne coauthored an audit of peer-reviewed research about the National Trust, which cares for over 300 stately homes, a third of which have multiple connections to the British empire. The report became a major media story and won the 2022 Museums and Heritage Judges’ Special Recognition Award and an Eastern Eye Award in 2023. Corinne directed Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted (2017–2022), a child-led history and writing project, with the commissioned photographer and Turner Prize shortlisted artist, Ingrid Pollard (2018–2022). Her most recent book is Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England’s Colonial Connections.