Today the UK officially reached 40C – something the Met Office said was "virtually impossible" in an undisrupted climate. SE: Definitely, yes. There were things that surprised me that we came across. It was serendipity with some of the images we found, many weren’t in display in galleries anywhere, so there’s nowhere else to see them. It was about looking beyond the obvious stuff people have been spoon fed and also to introduce new artists that people may not have been aware of.

But not everything is about ‘greatness’. While art may tell a story, Ruskin is telling his story about art, and as with any story, the narrative unfolds according to who gets to do the telling. England On Fire: A Visual Journey Through Albion’s Psychic Landscape tells a different tale, or rather the same one through different voices. London Fire Brigade earlier declared a major incident with blazes in at least 10 locations; a fire on a farm in Nottingham has also been declared a major incident and there have been blazes in Leeds, Norfolk and other parts of the country. I haven't even seen the exceptional category being used in the times I've looked at the Wildfire Index before," Kathryn Brown, The Wildlife Trust's director for climate action, told PA news agency. The London Fire Brigade declared a major incident after a number of fires broke out in and around the capital Certainly with the things that have been going on in the last few years, like Brexit, the divisive nature of that and the sense that people are alienated from what’s going on, I thought it was really important to emphasise ,not just the continuity of the radical strands in it, but also that this is a weird place. There’s also another whole load of books, TV programmes and documentaries about old, weird Albion stuff. I didn’t think anyone needed to see another still from The Witchfinder General or Blood on Satan’s Claw, that has been done. I wanted it to be quite angry and polemical, but also to have a sense of possibility and hope at the end of it. The Crystal Palace from the Great Exhibition, installed at Sydenham: sculptures of prehistoric creatures in the foreground c.1864. George Baxter (1814–67) Colour Baxter-process print

The fire service is also made a desperate plea to the public not to have barbeques or bonfires on Tuesday. SE: I didn’t know Mat previously. It was very fortuitous, he was recommended by the publisher. I was adamant that I didn’t want to do the text. Partly because I was committed to other things and I thought this was just picture research. The other publisher, Repeater books, who published Mat’s novel The Ruin, their editor Fiona suggested Mat as someone who’d be really good to do the words. I had some conversations with him and realised he was perfect for it. He got what England on Fire was about and we had lots of long phone conversations about things. I’m thrilled with his text. It’s the perfect compliment for the images. Basically all the rules of witchcraft were invented in there about a hundred years ago. It’s a bit like The Royal Family. Everyone thinks these are ancient rituals, but The Royal Family reinvented themselves after the First World War. And with modern witchcraft that came out of a basement at around the same time. Riminta saw the devastation unfold on the TV, watching images shot from a helicopter. She says their neighbours' homes have burnt down, but it appears their home is saved.

John Ruskin made the case for art as a language. Crafted visual images are more than frozen icons: they articulate an inner voice. Lines, space and perspective are its grammar, colour its syntax. From his perspective, it’s what you depict that counts: “It is not by the mode of representing and saying, but by what is represented and said, that the respective greatness of either the painter or the writer is to be finally determined.” Forget the tired rogues’ gallery of lords and ladies, forget the tall ships and haywains. These images cut to the heart of England’s psychic landscapes to portray an Albion unhinged, where magic and rebellion and destruction are the horses to which the country is hitched. On these fabled shores we are all castaways, whether our family has lived here for four thousand years or for four. SE: I am really interested in the pictures of supernatural events in general. I’m fascinated with stone circles, there’s a lot of that in the book. Things around folklore. I’d love to do a book based on the collection of The Museum of Rural Life. It’s a place near the University of Reading that has the most bizarre stuff. I think it explains quite a lot about the psychology of English people, English rather than British. Journey to Avebury 1973 Derek Jarman (1942–94) S8mm film One of the great things about art, as with many things in life, is the discovery of the new. Finding a picture or photograph that may have been thought lost to the ravages of time that stirs something inside, whether it a strange sense of dread or an uplifting rush of joy.

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The English are obsessed with the world behind the real world. I’m quite fascinated by why in Victorian era there was this huge Vogue for fairy paintings. Victorian fairy painting is really weird. Some of the people involved like Arthur Conan Doyle’s father, Charles Altamont Doyle, who I didn’t include because he’s Scottish, was the most extraordinary character. He ended up in an asylum. The Cottingley Fairy photographs, which Conan Doyle was convinced by, were amazing in how they essentially conned a nation. People wanted to believe in them. I think it was partly due to the trauma after WW1, they wanted something to believe in. Osman, in reference to his homeland, offers the affectionate demarcation “Albion unhinged”. You may agree or disagree, but one thing is certain: England On Fire will change the way you see England, not for showing anything new, but for showing you what has been there all along. They've urged people not to barbeque in parks or open spaces, not to leave broken bottles or glass on the ground, and asked people to dispose of cigarettes safely. TM: Tell us about the themes running through England on Fire, Magic and Rebellion being two of them. How did you come up with them?

Please take care during the heatwave as all emergency services are facing unprecedented challenges.” I pay tribute to the professionalism and skill of our fire services, who are working in difficult conditions to protect lives and communities.

According to the Met Office, most of England is at "exceptional" risk of wildfires, aside from the South West and patches of the North. A firefighter at the scene, asked what conditions were like, replied: “absolute hell”, while those affected by the blaze said it had been spreading “fast”. Officers will also be patrolling open spaces in the coming hours to ensure that Londoners are following the LFB advice to keep us all safe." Fascinating, vibrant, and overwhelmingly powerful, this is a unique look at England in its magical and rebellious glory … A LoveReading Star book, England on Fire is truly beautiful, it’s astute, inclusive, and absolutely magical.” -Liz Robinson,LoveReading.co.uk