What to read to understand Britain and Europe

Three books to chart the past, present and future of an ever-shifting relationship

Reluctant European by Stephen Wall (2020)

For decades, former diplomat Stephen Wall helped navigate Britain’s complex relationship with Europe, working with prime ministers from Thatcher to Brown. His excellent book, Reluctant European, doesn’t disguise his sadness at the result of the 2016 referendum. But he considers Britain’s sense of itself – rooted in a particular historical experience – was always hard to reconcile with the loss of sovereignty, which membership increasingly entailed. The perils we in Europe face are real but so are the opportunities. Close cooperation, in a looser, more flexible relationship than EU membership allowed, is now our best option.

The Substantive Law of the EU by Catherine Barnard (2025)

As a lawyer, I have my fill of legal texts but I dip into Professor Barnard’s book, now in its eighth edition, with enthusiasm. She strips away the pretence that the European court in Luxembourg decides cases by the strict application of legal principle. Very often they are decided on policy grounds – the European Union is, after all, a political project. Even so, this evidence-based text contrasts pleasingly with the wider political discourse – in which the official explanation for murder in Minnesota is flatly contradicted by video evidence. Facts do matter.

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann (1901)

To be put off by the length of Thomas Mann’s masterpiece is a grave error. This 19th-century German family saga, spanning four generations in the sea-swept north, is ostensibly about decline. In beautiful prose, with profound psychological insight, Mann sketches the waning fortunes of the Buddenbrook family. But more than decline, I am struck by the constancy of change – it defines our world and people adapt, some better than others. Celebrated as a long-awaited answer to Eliot and Dickens, Balzac and Flaubert, the book deservedly takes its place in the canon of great European literature.

A More Perfect Union: The Europe We Need by Marina Wheeler is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (£14.99). Order a copy from The Observer Shop for £13.49. Delivery charges may apply

Photograph by Hollie Adams/AFP via Getty Images

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