Broken dreams -- Greeks and Romans -- A thousand years of history -- A very British bomb -- Power and the pound -- Missed chances -- Cold warrior -- The road to Bruges -- The bastards -- Back to the desert -- Fog in the Channel -- Alone -- Afterword : the search resumes.

"Award-winning Financial Times journalist Philip Stephens paints a fascinating portrait of sixty years — from Suez to Brexit — as Britain struggles to reconcile its waning power with its past glory. Drawing on decades of personal contact and interviews with senior politicians and diplomats in Britain, the United States and across the capitals of Europe, Britain Alone is a magisterial and deeply perceptive history of our nation and how we arrived at the state we are in."-- Taken from back cover.