—WHEN A QUEEN SUCCEEDED A KING
Civil servants at the Treasury were still wiping their bottoms with hard, abrasive, old-fashioned toilet paper marked ON HIS MAJESTY’S SERVICE. When it was time to restock, it was thought indelicate to change this wording to HER MAJESTY. The next batch just said.

• One of Waterstones Best Books of 2022
• "A huge achievement, and hugely, hugely enjoyable....the construction skills deployed here are mind-boggling. The result is a glorious tour....of times I lived through and so often found I’d forgotten,  enhanced by neat little jokes which made me laugh out loud. - DAVID.
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I am taking a summer break from speaking engagements. The next booking is for the Henley Literary Festival on Saturday October.

An extract appeared in the Mail on Sunday on 9 October 2014: S.O.S... Save our shires: In a glorious evocation of a bygone England, MATTHEW ENGEL embarks on an epic journey through the ancient counties that were wiped off the map in a decade of lunacy... and makes an impassioned.

Matthew Engel's latest book, Engel's England, was published by Profile Books on 23 October 2014. You can order it from your bookseller of choice, including

• Waterstones
• Amazon