English: The Condition of the Subject

'It is a while since the subject took a long, hard look at itself and so Philip Martin's book is an invaluable and timely intervention into discussions about the position and direction of the discipline at a moment when English Studies is still deliberating ways forward after the theory wars. This stimulating collection of wide-ranging essays reveals once more the subject's diversity while registering a thoughtful anxiety over threats from without as much as undertaking a renewed scrutiny of differences of opinion within.' - Professor Peter Childs, Dean of Research, University of Gloucestershire, UK