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Full Description
England, Their England is an affectionately satirical inter-war comic novel first published in 1933. It hit the right spot at the time and became a bestseller, and has endured as a classic of humour, transending the passage of time. It is particularly famed for its portrayal of a village cricket match. The plot - if there can be said to be a plot - is set in 1920s England, 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. There he writes for a series of London newspapers, before being commissioned by a Welshman to write a book about the English from the view of a foreigner. Taking to the country and provincial cities, Donald spends his time doing research for a book on the English by consorting with journalists and minor poets, attending a country house weekend, serving as private secretary to a Member of Parliament, attending the League of Nations, and playing village cricket. The village cricket match is the most celebrated episode in the novel, and a reason cited for its enduring appeal.An important character is Mr Hodge; a caricature of Sir John Squire (poet and editor of the London Mercury) while the cricket team described in the book's most famous chapter is a representation of Sir John's Cricket Club - the Invalids - which survives today.
The book ends in the ancient city of Winchester, where MacDonnell had gone to school. New introduction by Alan Sutton
Contents
Introduction to the 2012 Edition; On the Western Front; The Farm in Buchan; Donald Meets Mr Ogilvy; William Hodge and the London Weekly; Donald Meets Tommy Huggins; Ormerode Towers; The Village Cricket Match; The Invitation to the Golf Club; Private Secretary at the League of Nations; The Theatre Critic; Reviews, Rugby and Reporting; By Tramp Steamer to Danzig; A Country Visit to the Vale of Aylesbury; A Bad Fox; Esmeralda; The First at the Hotel Josephine; The Peaceful Green Fields of England.
