Monoray picks up FT journalist Michael Peel's 'reality check' of British values

Monoray has bought What Everyone Knows about Britain (Except the British) by Financial Times journalist Michael Peel.  

Jake Lingwood, publisher at the Octopus Publishing imprint, bought UK and Commonwealth Rights from Will Francis at Janklow & Nesbit. Publication is scheduled for 25th April 2024.  

The synopsis reads: “As a proud British citizen and long-term foreign correspondent, Michael Peel knows all too well that how the UK looks to outsiders is not necessarily how we view our country.  

“It’s tempting to think of this country as fundamentally stable and successful. Events of the past few years from Brexit to questions about the monarchy and our imperial past, have sparked fierce debate as to whether this is true.  

“With the benefit of distance and the lack of rose-tinted spectacles, Michael Peel examines how much we live in the shadow of myths and nostalgia and urges us to consider the accuracy of ‘core British values’ such as tolerance, decency and fair play.”  

Lingwood said of What Everyone Knows about Britain: “In this election year, the debate is raging about what sort of country we want to live in. Michael Peel’s time abroad, watching Britain from the outside, has given him a ringside seat on international affairs – and there is no one more qualified than him to give us the reality check we sorely need on the subject of who we really are, and what we look like from over there.

"His brilliant essays on aspects of British life and the illusions of our national identity are just what we need to make us pull our heads out of the sand.”  

Peel said: “The longer I spent as a British correspondent reporting overseas, the more I was struck by the window my experience offered on my homeland. I had roots in the UK yet distance from it – and I saw revealing perspectives on it from several continents. This book is a passionately-felt argument that lessons from elsewhere can help harness the tangible desire in Britain for the country to be better.”  

The author first joined the Financial Times in 1997 and has reported from regions including West Africa, the Middle East, South-East Asia and Europe. His writing has also appeared in the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement, he is the recipient of awards from organisations including the Foreign Press Association and is often a guest on broadcast channels including the BBC and Sky.