England, Their England

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The book, he is told, is to be about the English, their social life and their related institutions, and written in such a way as to be enlightening for foreigners. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

With many sparkling comic moments, this book somehow manages to combine brilliant satire with warmth, even sentimentality. The book is written as if a travel memoir by a young Scotsman who had been invalided away from the Western Front, “Donald Cameron”, whose father’s will forces him to reside in England. It closes with a sentimental chapter set at Winchester, where the author (but not his character) went to school, in which one of the boys (or "men," as they're known at Winchester; this particular man is about 12 years old) explains that a piece of terminology used at the school is based on something that used to happen "until quite recently," and when pressed clarifies that by this he means 70 or 80 years ago. For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management.He also glances disapprovingly at colonialism, both internal and external, as he berates a nation that has lost its sense of diplomatic purpose.

Macdonell was a regular contributor to The Observer, and was also a well-known broadcaster for the BBC Empire Service. I don't know whether the caricatures were of well known 1930s figures or an archetype but Mr Huggins was genuinely amusing and enlivened any scene he appeared in, and even when the cricket match veered towards slapstick that would probably have worked better on film, there were still some nice touches. I was left with the impression that Donald thinks that the English are kind largely because he is kind.

At 7 o'clock the sky over Lambeth was all pigeon-blue and mother-of-pearl and jade-green and citron and topaz" - gorgeous.

Although the rest of his books have been largely forgotten, several of them earned accolades during his lifetime. Mrs Woolf, wife of the manager, is a very celebrated author and, in her own way, more important than Galsworthy. It was revealing as a piece of history too, with potential MP's answering questions by thanking the questioner and saying nothing, demonstrating this is not a failing just of contemporary politicians. The main misgiving is that this is generally just an asortment of set pieces between various bars, cricket pitches and periodicals, with Donald a fairly passive observer.I somehow came across it mentioned as a pointed Scottish 'take' on the English, but it's really an affectionate and unfalteringly loyal letter of love. England, Their England by Archibald Gordon Macdonell is included among The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read https://www. To become a subscriber to Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly Magazine, please visit our subscriptions page. But very, very much 'of its time' (quite entertainingly racist at points), dated and just, well, tiresome.

I was reminded of Wodehouse's Psmith in the City, where the viewpoint character visits Wodehouse's old school (which is not the character's old school). Of these, I'm afraid I didn't find the cricket match nearly as funny as it's cracked up to be, but the comments on, for example, schools of novelists or the pretentiousness of modern theatre were much more amusing. Minus points: the book is of its time so not particularly enlightened or PC - to be avoided if you are easily upset. Chapters on cricket, the Geneva of the League of Nations, fox-hunting, golf, country-house parties, politics and so on are described by appealing young Scottish war veteran Donald Cameron. Whether Cameron is haplessly participating in a village cricket match, being shown around an exclusive golf course, or trying to watch a rugby match in the thick London fog, his affectionately bemused portrait of his new countrymen is a joy to read.You can unsubscribe from our list at any point by changing your preferences, or contacting us directly. In 1914 a man comes down to the green here, and he makes a speech about just that very national honour that you've been talking about. The ending seemed terribly abrupt, as if the author desperately wanted to finish somehow or another.