In his introduction to this selection of his biographical articles, Mount concludes that language is a key constituent of Englishness, and that ‘the mongrel richness of the tongue generates an almost limitless individualityâ€. Proving his point, the 50 portraits he presents range from ‘old masters†such as Shakespeare and Pepys, to ‘early moderns†such as Rudyard Kipling, and modern writers, churchmen, politicians and those ‘in search of Englandâ€, among the latter, Pevsner, Betjeman and Ronald Blythe.