Not With a Bang But a Whimper: The Politics and Culture of Decline

This seems little disjoint and rambling as a complete work, but improves as it progresses. The later chapters offer an interesting critique of modern social conditions and policy in the UK. ( )

A first rate collection of argumentative essays, some with literary themes, and some with sociological or political, but all based in a view of England as a declining culture, sliding into a mire of socialist deceit. If you are a socialist you will probably not read it, if you are a conservative you will be more staunchly so after having read it. If you are neither you will probably with its reading have enjoyed a melancholy trip through a decaying cultural landscape in the company of someone with great erudition and literary skills. ( )

Dalrymple (a pseudonym) is a doctor and psychiatrist who has worked with the poor and the criminal, and witnessed first hand the effects of being trapped in the underclass. While he writes brilliantly, and captures the essence of the decline of a culture, after the first half of the book, the tone becomes unremitting. Best savoured as essays in their original form, this is a book to be read in a series of short bursts: it's too depressing (although terrifyingly accurate) to be swallowed whole ( )