England, Their England

A G Macdonell

Sep 2017 · Pan Macmillan

About this ebook

A special edition of England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell reissued with a bright retro design to celebrate Pan’s 70th anniversary.

Banished from his native Scotland by a curious clause in his father’s will, Donald Cameron moves to London and decides to conduct a study of the English people; a strange race who, he is told, have built an entire national identity around a reverence for team spirit and the memory of Lord Nelson . . .

What follows is one of the funniest social satires ever written. 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.

Reminiscent of the gentle wit of P. G. Wodehouse and Jerome K. Jerome, England, Their England offers a delightful portrait of Britain in the 1920s.

Ratings and reviews

Seminal post Great War book that observes the English from a Celtic viewpoint in a rather cherishable but vaguely sardonic way. Don't read if irony isn't your thing. It remains a piece of post 1918 literature of importance.

About the author

Archibald Macdonell was born in India in 1895. He began writing after being invalided out of the army during the First World War, working as a critic for the London Mercury. The publication of England, Their England in 1933 brought him critical acclaim and near-instant fame. He wrote many further novels, military history, several plays, and was a well-known radio broadcaster at the beginning of the Second World War. Macdonell died suddenly in 1941.