Brilliant ... The remarkable story of how British culture was transformed by émigré architects, filmmakers, and writers - Guardian Britain. Made in Europe.

In the 1930s, tens of thousands of central Europeans sought refuge from fascism in Britain. While the rainy, seemingly quaint island they found upon arrival was a far cry from the vibrancy of Weimar Berlin or Red Vienna, it was safe, and it became their home. Yet the émigrés did not arrive alone: they brought new and radical ideas, and as they started to rebuild their lives and careers, they forever changed the face of Britain.

Drawing on a vast array of artists and intellectuals, including renowned figures like Erno Goldfinger, forgotten luminaries like Ruth Glass, and a multitude of larger-than-life visionaries and charlatans, historian Owen Hatherley argues that in the resulting clash between European modernism and British conservatism, our imaginations were fundamentally realigned and improved.

By applying what Bertolt Brecht called, in a new German word, a Verfremdungseffekt, an 'alienation effect', on Britain, the foreigners made us all a little bit foreign too.

Provocative, entertaining, and thoroughly researched, The Alienation Effect opens our eyes to the influence of émigrés around us – many of our most quintessentially British icons are products of this cultural clash – and urges us to remember and renew our proud tradition of seeking asylum.

Pages: 608, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm