In Search of England

by H.V. Morton

Book Overview

Currently in its 40th printing with its original publisher in the UK, this is the book that one British newspaper has called "travel writing at its best. Bill Bryson must weep when he reads it." Whether describing ruined gothic arches at Glastonbury or hilarious encounters with the inhabitants of Norfolk, Morton recalls a way of life far from gone even at the beginning of a new century.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306811057
• ISBN13: 9780306811050
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

a great author

H.V. Morton was a great travel writer. The first books I read by this author were about Italy, because I read everything I can about Italy. Morton wrote during the early 20th century, so there is a definite feeling of not just travelling, but travelling to another time. This is even more noticeable in the books about England and London. "In Search of England" takes the reader back to England of a few generations past. Morton is fascinated by the England of HIS past, and he speaks with English country folk who were old-fashioned even to his generation. There was a man who chipped flint into tools, for example. For readers like me who were fascinated by books like Rudyard Kipling's "Puck of Pook's Hill" and "Rewards and Fairies", Patricia Wright's "I am England", and the more recent "Sarum", this book will be a great source on England as it was in the last century. Very charming.

Could Have Written for the New Yorker Magazine

What a great travel writer H.V. Morton is! He reminds me of Joseph Mitchell ("Up in the Old Hotel and Other Stories"), who wrote of similar experiences in and around New York City for the New Yorker magazine in the 1930's, 40's and 50's.This book chronicles a solitary road trip that Morton took around England in the late 1920's. It tells the story of his experiences with local people and gives fascinating historical commentary about some of the sights. As such, it's got human interest, glimpses of life in rural England nearly 80 years ago as well as snippets of life in England over the centuries. Morton's writing style is simple, sincere and insightful. He makes you believe he loves what he's writing about.He sets off from London and heads west/southwest along the coast of the English Channel to Land's End. From there he goes northeast along the Bristol Channel and then straight north to Gretna Green just over the border into Scotland ("This story has no right in this book and I apologize for writing it" he writes), along Hadrian's Wall and finally zig zags southward back to London.In Cornwall ("There is a strangeness in Cornwall. You feel it as soon as you cross Tor Ferry.") he spent the night in a tiny bedroom of a cottage in St. Anthony-in-Roseland. "...I came here because I like the name." Prepared for the worst, he finally came across "a rosy middle-aged woman, wearing a print apron...standing at the door of a pink cottage looking at my car as though it were an unnatural phenomenon." Asking her where he might stay the night, she replied " `I've got nothing for dinner, sir, but eggs and cream, because we have no shops, and everything is brought us from Gerrans in motor car-or else I'd gladly give you my spare room.' I told her that eggs and cream were the only things I would dream of eating in St. Anthony-in-Roseland." He goes on to recreate the evening he shared with this woman, her husband and some neighbors, talking and listening to music from the ballroom in London's Savoy Hotel on the wireless.In another adventure, Morton arrived at Wells Cathedral just before noon and saw "a crowd whispering, standing about, sitting on stone seats, leaning against pillars and tombs,...There were charabanc (sight seeing motor coach) parties, American families, market women, farmers and their wives... `What are they doing?' I asked a verger. `Waiting to see the clock strike twelve!' he replied. Then I remembered that in Wells Cathedral is one of the most exciting clocks in England; in fact, with the exception of the clock in Strasburg Cathedral, probably one of the most exciting clocks in the world. It is 600 years old, and it was invented by a monk of Glastonbury called Peter Lightfoot." He goes on to vividly describe the clock and what happened as it struck twelve.I love discovering great writers, and I put HV Morton in this category. In addition to "In Search of England" he wrote about London, Spain, Italy, Rome, St. Paul (the person),