Rob Young\'s Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain\'s Visionary Music is a seminal book on British music and cultural heritage, that spans the visionary classical and folk tradition from the nineteenth-century to the present day. \'A thoroughly enjoyable read and likely to remain the best-written overview for a long time.\'GUARDIAN\'A perfectly timed, perfectly pitched alternative history of English folk music . . . wide-ranging, insightful, authoritative, thoroughly entertaining.\'NEW STATESMAN\'A stunning achievement.\'SIMON REYNOLDS\'A masterpiece.\' CAUGHT BY THE RIVER\'Excellent . . . blissfully quotable.\' NEW YORK TIMES\'An authoritative account.\' THE TIMES\'Consistently absorbing.\' INDEPENDENT\'An impassioned and infectious rallying cry of a book.\' SUNDAY TIMESIn this groundbreaking survey of more than a century of music making in the British Isles, Rob Young investigates how the idea of folk has been handed down and transformed by successive generations - song collectors, composers, Marxist revivalists, folk-rockers, psychedelic voyagers, free festival-goers, experimental pop stars and electronic innovators.In a sweeping panorama of Albion\'s soundscape that takes in the pioneer spirit of Cecil Sharp; the pastoral classicism of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Peter Warlock; the industrial folk revival of Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd; the folk-rock of Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, Shirley Collins, John Martyn and Pentangle; the bucolic psychedelia of The Incredible String Band, The Beatles and Pink Floyd; the acid folk of Comus, Forest, Mr Fox and Trees; The Wicker Man and occult folklore; the early Glastonbury and Stonehenge festivals; and the visionary pop of Kate Bush, Julian Cope and Talk Talk, Electric Eden maps out a native British musical voice that reflects the complex relationships between town and country, progress and nostalgia, radicalism and conservatism.An attempt to isolate the \'Britishness\' of British music - a wild combination of pagan echoes, spiritual quest, imaginative time-travel, pastoral innocence and electrified creativity - Electric Eden will be treasured by anyone interested in the tangled story of Britain\'s folk music and Arcadian dreams.\'A treat.\' TIME OUT\'Young is a fine writer.\' MOJO\'Young\'s immense narrative is both educative and gripping.\' UNCUT\'A multitudinous, fascinating and beautifully written account.\' TLS