Our Island Story: A Child's History of England, published abroad as An Island Story: A Child's History of England, is a book by the British author Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall, first published in 1905 in London by T. C. & E. C. Jack.[1]
It covers the history of England from the time of the Roman occupation until Queen Victoria's death, using a mixture of traditional history and mythology to explain the story of British history in a way accessible to younger readers.[2]
The book depicts the union of England and Scotland as a desirable and inevitable event,[3] and praises rebels and the collective will of the common people in opposing tyrants, including kings like John and Charles I.
The book inspired the parody 1066 and All That.[4]
Prime Minister David Cameron chose Our Island Story when asked to select his favourite childhood book in October 2010:[2]
When I was younger, I particularly enjoyed Our Island Story by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall [...] It is written in a way that really captured my imagination and which nurtured my interest in the history of our great nation.[2]
Richard Chartres in a lecture delivered at Gresham College mentioned his fondness for this text, relating it to an approach to English history rooted in the works of John Foxe and John Milton.[5]
Media related to Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall at Wikimedia Commons