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aliteralfield's review against another edition
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Post ww1 a Scottish man called Cameron decides to write a book about the English and their customs. Learning the ways of English life with drinking and cricket and going to country houses on the weekend. He also randomly goes to Geneva for a month for an international conference and learns alot about others views of the English
creechance's review against another edition
5.0
This book is simply wonderful. If you like P.G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, George MacDonald Fraser, you will like A.G. Macdonnell. A Scotsman's view of England in the interwar years, England, Their England is full of hilarious observations and satirical takes on just about every type of personality in society. Admittedly, as an American, I was not able fully to appreciate the humor of the cricket match, the book's most famous scene, because I don't understand the game. The only negatives are that the book isn't longer or it's author more prolific.
lyndsaybh's review against another edition
2.0
The very gentlest of satire - in fact it's really just a fawning, book-length love letter to the English. It's interesting as a time capsule of a period and place that no longer exists (and includes the racism and sexism from that time), but I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected. The first chapter (which is set in France in WW1) is excellent, genuine satire and I only wish it carried on in this vein. I do think the English would enjoy this more than I did, particularly those with a sense of pride and nostalgia for a lost Olde England.
bookpossum's review against another edition
3.0
Gentle, tongue-in-cheek humour about England and Englishness from the perspective of a Scot back in the 1920s. Good fun and a book I was very pleased to get hold of. Thanks Nancy for being instrumental in bringing that about!
muggsyspaniel's review against another edition
3.0
The story in a nutshell is this, Scottish Donald Cameron meets Welsh Evan Davies in a pill box during World War One and discuss the apparently unfathomable characteristics of the English. Cameron says he'd like to write a book about the English someday and Davies mentions he's a publisher in London and they should get together after the war. Cameron later suffers from shell shock and eventually is sent home to his fathers farm in Scotland. When his father dies his will stipulates that Donald must leave Scotland to come into his money and not return until he's lived a little. So Donald heads to London with some letters of introduction to get him started in a literary career. He meets lots of people, eventually bumps in to Davies again and is tasked with writing the book they had discussed so many years before.
So far so good, the writing in these early chapters is pleasant and reminded me of nothing so much as one of those gently amusing films that Britain pumped out with seeming ease in the late 40's and early 50's, in my head I'd even cast Bill Travers as Donald (if you've seen Geordie you'll know what I mean). From here on though the book heads into that typical upper class, weekend party milieu characteristic of humorous books of the period. Upper class people with amusing names say things are ghastly and that's about your lot as far as studying the English people. Towards the end of the book Cameron meets some country labourers in a pub and listens to their conversation but as far as studying a cross section of society goes he's aiming strictly highbrow.
As to the famous cricket match chapter, it's funny, I laughed out loud once but as to why it is so very famous that the books reputation hangs on it I don't quite understand.
I was hopeful that this book would be a brilliantly amusing dissection of the English character and what it is to be English, at least the English Character and what it was to be English in 1933 when the book was first published. Unfortunately this suffers a similar fate to many humorous novels in that it has dated horribly in some parts. To be fair the writing is actually very good and the last chapter in particular is excellent and closer to what I had hoped the book might be throughout.
Bearing in mind that the writing is very good I consider this a missed opportunity. Maybe I was expecting too much a book that is billed as a humorous novel but there we are.
Definitely a case of 2 and a half stars rather than 2 or 3 but I'll plump for 3 because it was entirely inoffensive and made me chuckle occasionally.
So far so good, the writing in these early chapters is pleasant and reminded me of nothing so much as one of those gently amusing films that Britain pumped out with seeming ease in the late 40's and early 50's, in my head I'd even cast Bill Travers as Donald (if you've seen Geordie you'll know what I mean). From here on though the book heads into that typical upper class, weekend party milieu characteristic of humorous books of the period. Upper class people with amusing names say things are ghastly and that's about your lot as far as studying the English people. Towards the end of the book Cameron meets some country labourers in a pub and listens to their conversation but as far as studying a cross section of society goes he's aiming strictly highbrow.
As to the famous cricket match chapter, it's funny, I laughed out loud once but as to why it is so very famous that the books reputation hangs on it I don't quite understand.
I was hopeful that this book would be a brilliantly amusing dissection of the English character and what it is to be English, at least the English Character and what it was to be English in 1933 when the book was first published. Unfortunately this suffers a similar fate to many humorous novels in that it has dated horribly in some parts. To be fair the writing is actually very good and the last chapter in particular is excellent and closer to what I had hoped the book might be throughout.
Bearing in mind that the writing is very good I consider this a missed opportunity. Maybe I was expecting too much a book that is billed as a humorous novel but there we are.
Definitely a case of 2 and a half stars rather than 2 or 3 but I'll plump for 3 because it was entirely inoffensive and made me chuckle occasionally.
debsd's review against another edition
3.0
3.5*
I put this on my to-be-read list sometime last year and promptly forgot about it, so when I came across it again, I wasn't quite sure why I was reading it, but what I found was a lovely, gentle, whimsical satire which is well worth a read.
I put this on my to-be-read list sometime last year and promptly forgot about it, so when I came across it again, I wasn't quite sure why I was reading it, but what I found was a lovely, gentle, whimsical satire which is well worth a read.
lnatal's review
3.0
From BBC Radio 4:
A Scot, invalided in 1918, writes a book about the eccentricities of the English.
A Scot, invalided in 1918, writes a book about the eccentricities of the English.
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