T he chaos of politics, the searing divisions through society, the promised demise of faith in democracy: it might look like the country is in an unprecedented state of strife and upheaval over Brexit. But writers have been talking about this stuff for centuries.

King Lear’s shuffle into dementia as he tears apart his kingdom on a vain whim. Dickens’s revolutionary bloodshed in A Tale of Two Cities conjuring tensions within and across borders. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman challenging the imperialist march of the Nazis in Casablanca. How does culture sort out the bloody mess of social, political and geographical divisions? Politicians and bureaucrats don’t have the answer. The man down the pub doesn’t have the answer. So maybe it’s time we look to literature.