Reviews

• A CLASSIC OF ENGLISH HUMOUR

  All too often (and even in these columns) this book is praised for its peerless description of the Village Cricket Match and the rest is dismissed. Most unfair. The whole book deserves to be right up there with Diary of a Nobody, Three Men on a Boat and Jerome's even better Three Men on the Bummel as one of the classics of (very) British humour. First, the range of characters is ambitiously broad, engagingly funny, as immaculately drawn as Evelyn Waugh's and a lot more believable than any in P.G.Wodehouse. Here are louche writers, dizzy starlets, pragmatic editors, chinless wonders, ambitious diplomats, double-barrelled Old-Etonian civil servants, conniving politicians, intimidating blacksmiths, garrulous and much-travelled engineers and lots more - all of them vividly drawn, most of them engagingly eccentric (in a very English way). In many ways, England, Their England, like Jerome K. Jerome's books, is a series of set-pieces. The Village Cricket match is the most famous. But the country-house weekend party deserves to be just as popular. With the hero's standing in this elevated society continually jacked up to impossible heights by the well-intentioned good offices of the mysterious Tommy Huggins (aka Monsieur Hougins), the satire grows larger and larger, the barbs pierce deeper the longer the weekend goes on. We are treated to similarly perceptive views of the fox-hunting fraternity, the machinations of the League of Nations, soccer crowds vs. Twickenham Varsity match crowds, election hustings and rounds of golf. The quality of the writing is up there with the best of English humorists, too. Whether it's the grim fatalism of the introductory chapter in the World War I trenches or the halcyon description of an idyllic journey from Marylebone to Aylesbury on the old Great Central line, MacDonell can turn a perfectly honed phrase that will move, surprise, amuse, produce a warm smile of recognition, or a hoot of satisfying laughter. Yes, the finale, set on a hill above Winchester, almost topples over into sentimentality. But, for the wit and wisdom of what has gone before, perhaps we should indulge the author his slightly saccharine dream. As I've already intimated, this book deserves to be a classic of English humour. It also provides a fascinating picture of Britain between the Wars, a picture that includes many corners that are as true today as they were then (though not just at the moment the newspapers' usual predictions of doom and gloom for the English Cricket team which, it seems, have always been a feature of our national life!) Highly recommended.

• RAS

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• Plus ça change, plus ça même chose!

  Loved the book! Written in the 30s it is a Scotsman's take on the craziness of the English, their idiosyncrasies, illogical approaches to life, class system, and general sense of superiority to the rest of the world. Several passage were truly ROFLOL! And, even though we are now 80+ years on, it is the 21st century, another World War has been and done it's deeds upon the English, somehow nothing has changed - perhaps a bit more mellow now with the loss of their vast empire, but still hilarious when you get down and look at them at home, in the pubs on the street corners, the clubs in London, the football stadia in the north, and the huntin' and fishin' in the shires, and what's left of the country homes and weekends away. A great read.

• Not exactly side-splitting humour.

  Whilst the writing was good and there were some moderately funny parts, I found it easy to put down. Maybe if I was not of English decent I would have found more humour in it.

• Great entertainment

  What a pleasure it was to re-read this wonderful novel. The basic premise is that Donald Cameron, having been wounded towards the end of the First World War, inherits a modest estate from his late father, but only on condition that he stays out of his native Scotland for at least eleven months of every year until he reaches the age of fifty. Forced to relocate to London, Donald undertakes a study of the English as a race, having previously been warned that their two most important national traits were the sacrosanct nature of team spirit, and a reverence for Lord Nelson. As he wanders through English life Donald is nonplussed by the English whom he rapidly identifies as a race wracked by internal conflict - the most courteous, kind and charming people can, without any warning, occasionally (and more or less without warning) demonstrate the most heinous meanness, cruelty and spite, to be followed by the most painful remorse and generous amends. Author MacDonell obviously loves the English as his character Donald, whom he treats to a serious of hilarious experiences. The chapter devoted to the village cricket match in which a bewildered Donald participates has been frequently anthologised elsewhere, and is to my mind the finest and funniest writing about the game ever. Even people with no love for the game can seldom fail to be won over by the glorious chapter in which he evokes a Corinthian spirit and rural idyll that possibly never existed and was certainly long gone by 1933 when McDonnell wrote this. In another chapter Donald is taken to an exclusive golf course where he meets an old comrade from back home in Buchan who has carved out a niche as the club professional, a role which he plays to the maximum adopting the role of curmudgeonly Jock, much to the delight of the posh member s who congratulate themselves on knowing how to deal with "a real character". Needless to say, Cameron, with his hickory-shafted clubs, emerges victorious against the suburbanites despite their expensive clubs and fashionable accessories, though equally true to form they all pay up without hesitation or regret. Later in the year he goes to the annual "varsity rugby match" at Twickenham, one of the great social events of the year. As it happens the match takes place in the midst of regular London pea-souper, so no-one can see a thing. However, everyone has a jolly good time regardless, and a huge amount of wine is still consumed. Light-heaterd throughout, there are enough unexpected twists to prevent the novel form falling into predictability, and MacDonell's prose is beautifully crafted. Well worth reading!

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