Excellent Essex

"I’ve always been a bit obsessed by Essex. I don’t come from there, I’m from the West Midlands, but I used to cycle through Essex quite a lot. I’ve always been struck by the way it’s divided into two parts. There’s what’s called ‘estuary Essex’, which is places like Romford, Ilford, Tilbury, and Grays. It has this image as a post-industrial, rather bigoted place that’s rather ugly. Then, moving towards East Anglia, there’s the beautiful part of Essex with the Stour Valley and places like that, Constable country. I used to cycle through Romford and Ilford before getting to Epping Forest. This really beautiful, bucolic county would open up and eventually I’d get to the gorgeous coastline. So it’s quite schizophrenic, but actually that makes it really, really fascinating. The post-industrial, estuary part of Essex is every bit as interesting as the beautiful part. Essex has this proximity to London—what people call the push and pull of London—but nevertheless has a very distinct identity. It’s always been quite close to the centre of English affairs. Even now, during this Brexit period that we’ve just been through, places such as Thurrock, which is part of estuary Essex, have been really decisive. These maligned, working-class, Brexit-voting regions have really had their moment in the sun over the last few years. But there’s also a side to Essex that is quite artistic, quite eccentric, a place where you can just escape London, but still be within touch of the capital. For example, the painter Augustus John was involved in a ménage à trois there with his wife Ida Nettleship and another woman called Dorelia McNeill. They fall in love with each other and also with rural Essex, the gypsy encampments. But they could still get back to Liverpool Street, when they felt like it. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter It’s a radical county in many ways. It’s a county that’s an early adopter. For example, it’s the region at the heart of Cromwell’s Eastern Association. It was a great supporter, at the first, of Margaret Thatcher. It’s got this very belligerent, up yours attitude, which is typical of a very individualistic county. If you think of the Sun of Kelvin Mackenzie’s heyday, he’s very much an Essex man. It has a lot of entrepreneurs who come from relatively humble backgrounds, like Alan Sugar, Vijay and Bhikhu Patel or Jon Hunt, the man who set up Foxtons. There’s also this slightly vulgar aspect to it. Rod Stewart was born in Islington, but he moved to Essex where he has his own stately home. These shifts and ironies are typical of Essex, which also produced both Lord Tebbit and Grayson Perry. You’ve got these wonderful thatch cottages and water mills of Constable country, you’ve got the beautiful salt marshes and mud flats at the estuary. It’s insular, it’s eccentric, but it’s also got the most beautiful collection of churches you can imagine, including one, which is the chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, right out on the Essex coast, which is reconstructed from a Roman temple. It’s just the most amazing place. So it’s a very ancient part of England as well. So Gillian Darley, who is very much a disciple of the great architectural writer Ian Nairn, has done this absolutely beautiful book. Especially around this time of year, it’s a wonderful book to just sit back with and relax and think about how Essex is a place worth exploring and a truly great and important English county. Absolutely, all places are interesting if you just open your eyes and look. There is nowhere that doesn’t have a fascinating history. This book restores Essex, this much maligned county, and says, ‘Take another look. This is a rich, rich place in terms of history. It’s been at the heart of English culture and remains so today.’ No, it’s not a book I’d put in the car if I were driving around various country churches, you’d want something by Simon Jenkins for that. I imagine that someone who knows Essex well would read this book in a different way to someone who doesn’t, but each would find it rewarding in their own way. To the person who did know Essex, it might be a reminder of just how remarkable this county is, but it might also open up certain aspects. For those who don’t know Essex at all, I wholly recommend this book, because they’ll realize just how fascinating a county it is."