Customer Reviews:
 Funny but strange May 25, 2008
This book was is one person's musings on "Englishness", presented in a strange and abstract format.
 Poignant... January 23, 2006
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
A charming and entertaining book that is, though, swiftly heading towards obsolescence as the English people featured in here find themselves gradually replaced by a new form of 'English' people from all corners of the globe who, sadly, share few of the characteristics featured in this book. Buy this and enjoy it as a piece of nostalgia.
An absolute gem of a book February 18, 1999
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
What an impossible subject to capture but be has done so and done it brilliantly. Godfrey Smith, a master craftsman with the language, has used his immense experience of being an Englishman to gather together scores of facets of our character and, even though we Englishmen should be aware of them all, what a pleasure it is to ramble through them particularly in these days of Europe, devolution and the dreaded political correctness. The perfect antidote to Brussels and the 'new' world in which we seem to dwell.
A marvellous read for all Anglophiles December 31, 1998
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
Vivid, alert, affectionate and cogent - a most entertaining book - KINGLEY AMIS The Mail on Sunday Godfrey Smith writes beautiful, pithy English.. venerates the beauties of English towns and countryside, luxuriates in English Freedoms, cherishes the riches of English civilisation, loves his country. JOHN KEEGAN The Sunday Times A mixture of eccentricity and scholoarship, highly entertaining. A J P TAYLOR
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