Mustn't Grumble: In Search of England and the English

by Joe Bennett

Book Overview

Fifteen years ago, Joe Bennett left England for a holiday. Now it's time to come back. But how is the England of his memory different from the England of the motorway? Identikit High Streets, imported... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 141652603X
• ISBN13: 9781416526032
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK Young Adult
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Travel... and a lot more

I love travel books, but this (and Joe's other books) is a lot more than just a travel book. Insightful, personal, often surprising... excellent. The best travel books take you somewhere, and in this case, you feel like you go there alongside the author. Great read.

You Can't Go Home

Joe Bennett has taught school in New Zealand for three decades and decides to return to the country of his birth, England, to see how it's doing. Big mistake Joe. He follows the journey made by one H.V. Morton who travelled through England in 1926 in a Morris bullnose Cowley. Morton was "In Search of England" and that was the title of the book he wrote about his trip. Joe Bennett starts out with the idea of hitchiking and discovers nobody does that in England anymore. Borrowing a car from a friend he follows Morton's footsteps and finds a much changed country. The "nation of shopkeepers" that Napoleon thought unworthy of fighting is no more. Tesco superstores have sprouted everywhere and destroyed the High Streets of every town. Lager-fuelled louts make life a misery for everyone. And, the monstrous spin of the New Labour regime of Tony Blair has infected the entire country with a belief that bad policy can be made good if you just talk it up enough. But this is a wonderful piece of writing. More wonderful and unique metaphors per page than you have a right to expect - "a grim-faced mother jogging, her infant strapped into a streamlined buggy like an astronaut at take-off." The whole book is filled with wry humour and a wistful longing for the England he knew as a young man and that has gone forever. Joe Bennett is disappointed in what he finds; H.V. Morton would probably keel over with a cardiac arrest. For me it was a real tonic; lovely book.