Excellent Essex

In Praise of England's Most Misunderstood County

Gillian Darley

• Publisher: Old Street Publishing
• Year: 2026
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781910400685
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

'Original and beautifully written' GUARDIAN

Gillian Darley takes us on a vivid, personal tour, from the seaside piers to the empty marshes and the New Town tower blocks, revealing a landscape and a story like no other.

Alongside Essex Man and TOWIE, there's the Essex that nurtured the first Puritan settlers in America, that welcomed refugees from Europe, fugitives from the underworld and bombed-out EastEnders. Where dreamers and makers, punk poets, anarchist sects and inventors all found inspiration.

A Colchester nurseryman was the first to trade with a secretive Eastern Kingdom. Braintree's only earthquake inspired an innovative building system. In Epping, a spat over firewood led to an historic victory for the common people. In Essex, the clash between city and countryside, capital and province, created a shower of sparks that ultimately set the world on fire.

Drawing on everything from early maps to reality TV, Excellent Essex is no guide book, but a wonderful guide to England's most misunderstood county.

Table of contents

• Praise
• Title Page
• Order of Play
• Introduction: Why Essex?
• 1: Fatt, Frutefull and Full of Profitable Thinges – Finding Essex
• 2: The Golden Path – Getting to Essex
• 3: Turning the View Upside – Down Shaping Essex
• 4: Over Growne & Sudainly Moneyed – Spending it in Essex
• 5: Heaven with the Gates Off – Fresh Starts in Essex
• 6: A Peculiar People – Dreaming in Essex
• Darley’s Days Out – Walks and Wanders Around Essex
• 7: Do Something Fierce – Essex at War
• 8: Crepes, Grapes and Salt Flakes – Making it in Essex
• 9: All the Fun and Most of the Sun – Playing in Essex
• 10: Films Not Fords – Picturing Essex
• 11: Buffalo Bill in Ilford – Stories of Essex
• Endnotes
• Image credits
• Index
• Reading Around Essex
• Acknowledgements
• Copyright