Pomp & Circumstance Why Britain’s Traditions Matter
By Penny Mordaunt and Chris Lewis
In this extraordinary new book, former Secretary of State Penny Mordaunt and co-author Chris Lewis build on the success of their Sunday Times-bestselling Greater: Britain After the Storm to celebrate the traditions and values that underpin British life.
Pomp & Circumstance explores Britain’s traditions – both the ancient and the new. From coronations and national events to local customs, they provide stability, reinforce identity and foster resilience to help us steer a course through the uncertainties of tomorrow. Nations, organisations and communities that have them thrive. Where they are absent, it is harder to adapt to the fast-changing world.
At a time of great worry about our ability to adapt to an uncertain world, this book should give every Briton confidence and courage. It contains a unique perspective from someone who has had a ringside seat at many of our national events and crises over many years. Mordaunt, who in her ceremonial role as Lord President of the Council famously carried the Sword of State and presented the Jewelled Sword of Offering to King Charles III at his coronation, examines areas of traditional British culture – including the monarchy, Parliament, the law, sport and local traditions, as well as values such as sacrifice, courage and remembrance – to show how a country often thought of as old-fashioned actually uses its historical conventions to navigate the future.
Far from being a brake on progress, our traditions offer a predictable rhythm to life, promote values, encourage reflection and create a sense of continuity while allowing room for innovation and growth.
Reviews
“Pomp & Circumstance is a classy reminder to the doom-mongers and cynics who want to write Britain off that they do so at their peril.”
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour Together
“This book is the antidote to Britain’s crisis of confidence. Our traditions and values help us face the future and they should be celebrated.”
Iain Dale, LBC
“An important and absorbing reminder of the importance of those colourful, deep-rooted rituals that have shaped Britain’s soul – and why we meddle with them at our peril.”
Robert Hardman, Daily Mail and author of Charles III: The Inside Story
“A wonderful examination of the UK’s customs and a celebration of those who created them. Guaranteed to cheer you up.”
Alister Jack, Baron Jack of Courance
“Pomp & Circumstance is quietly subversive and challenges readers of all parties, and none, to reflect on how best to learn from our island’s past.”
Peter Kellner, former president of YouGov
“Egalitarianism resents colour and custom because they mark difference and stir emotions that cannot be tamed by officialdom. Tradition liberates us from fashion and its transitory tyrants. You’d never have found Karl Marx at a morris dance.”
Quentin Letts, Daily Mail
“There’s no one better placed to tell this important story about Britain’s traditions.”
Cathy Newman, Channel 4 News
“Jolly, exuberant and brimming with affection for Britain’s rituals and traditions, this is a book that revels in our national character and looks forward with admirable optimism.”
Dominic Sandbrook, The Rest Is History
“A thoughtful exploration of tradition and what it offers in this world of radical change.”
Dan Snow, historian
“An army of solemn bores have dismissed tradition as a restraint on progress and a reservoir of bigotry. Penny Mordaunt and Chris Lewis demonstrate that, on the contrary, tradition is a handmaiden of progress and a source of meaning. And they do so in the best way possible – by telling the stories of British traditions, from royal weddings to cheese rolling, in all their glory and absurdity.”
Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg
“Traditions and rituals are like treasures. This book puts them in its readers’ reach, so they can own and enjoy them, because they belong to us all.”
Major-General Alastair Bruce of Crionaich
“Chris Lewis and Penny Mordaunt illustrate perfectly the importance of tradition as a cultural foundation – but that doesn’t signify an old-fashioned approach. Innovation thrives on tradition.”
Edmund King OBE, president of the AA
“An intriguing, heartfelt and surprising elegy to the astonishing role of tradition and ritual in modern British life.”
Rory Stewart, The Rest is Politics
“The world turns to the UK for innovation. The risk involved can only be mitigated by trust, and Britain leads on creativity in large part because of its traditions – that includes some of the more eccentric ones, which this book rightly celebrates.”
Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank
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Buy this book
- Hardback, 448 pages
- ISBN: 9781785909948
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16 October 2025
Available to pre-order - £22.00
- eBook
- ISBN: 9781837360260
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16 October 2025
Available to pre-order - £16.99