How was Great Britain made? And what does it mean to be British? In this book, Linda Colley explains how a new British nation was invented in the wake of the 1707 Act of Union, and how a new national identity was forged through war, religion, trade and imperial expansion. The book also includes the stories of numerous individual Britons - heroes and politicians like Nelson and Pitt; bourgeois patriots like Thomas Coram and John Wilkes; artists, writers and musicians who helped to create the image of Britishness; as well as many ordinary men and women. This book won the Wolfson Prize.