''The King's England'' is a topographical and historical book series written and edited by
Arthur Mee
Arthur Henry Mee (21 July 187527 May 1943) was an English writer, journalist and educator. He is best known for ''The Harmsworth Self-Educator'', ''The Children's Encyclopædia'', ''The Children's Newspaper'', and ''The King's England''.
Ea ...
in 43 volumes. The first, introductory, volume was published in 1936 by Hodder & Stoughton; in 1989, The King's England Press was established to reprint the series.
The publishers (
) claimed that the series was a modern
Domesday Book
Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
and that the compilers had travelled half-a-million miles in order to complete their task. The vast majority of the content is an alphabetical description of parish churches, and associated historical figures and other local worthies.
Original titles
The first title in the series was the introductory volume, ''Enchanted Land: Half-a-million miles in the King's England'', published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1936.
* ''Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire''
* ''Berkshire''
* ''Buckinghamshire''
* ''Cambridgeshire''
* ''Cheshire''
* ''Cornwall''
* ''Derbyshire''
* ''Devon''
* ''Dorset''
* ''Durham''
* ''Enchanted Land: Half-a-million miles in the King's England''
* ''Essex''
''Gloucestershire''(1938)
* ''Hampshire with the Isle of Wight''
* ''Herefordshire''
* ''Hertfordshire: London's Country Neighbour''
* ''Kent''
* ''Lake Counties''
* ''Lancashire''
* ''Leicestershire and Rutland''
* ''Lincolnshire''
* ''London: Heart of the Empire and Wonder of the World'' (1937)
* ''Middlesex'' (1940)
* ''Monmouthshire''
* ''Norfolk''
* ''Northamptonshire''
* ''Northumberland''
* ''Nottinghamshire''
* ''Oxfordshire''
* ''Shropshire''
* ''Somerset''
* ''Staffordshire''
* ''Suffolk''
* ''Surrey''
* ''Sussex''
* ''Warwickshire''
* ''Wiltshire''
* ''Worcestershire''
* ''Yorkshire – East Riding''
* ''Yorkshire – North Riding''
* ''Yorkshire – West Riding''
Revised titles
In 1970, the London volume was split into three. Bomb damage during the Second World War, the subsequent post-war reconstruction and alterations to local government boundaries in 1965 all made it difficult to treat London properly in one volume. The new volumes, which brought the total to 43, were:
* ''London North of the Thames except the City and Westminster'' (1972)
* ''London – The City and Westminster''
* ''London South of the Thames''
Reprints
In 1989,
The King's England Press
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' ...
was established to reprint the series, "recognising the need for them, both as excellent guidebooks and now with the added dimension as historical documents in their own right."
[{{cite web, title=About the company, url=http://www.kingsengland.com/PBCPPlayer.asp?ID=773748, publisher=The King's England Press, access-date=7 April 2016]
References
{{Reflist
{{Italic title
{{DEFAULTSORT:King's England, The
Series of history books
History books about England
Topography
Series of non-fiction books
{{England-hist-book-stub