In Memory of England: A Novelist's View of History by Peter Vansittart

by Peter Vansittart

This is a description of England by the novelist Peter Vansittart, beginning with the mythical land of Albion, of Jack the Giant Killer, Arthur and Merlin. This idealized view of England informs his account of the more conventional heroes and villains, oppressions and advances in this island.;The author discusses English character traits, and progresses to English personalities such as the British theologian Pelagius, William of Occam, Wycliffe, Wolsey and Elizabeth I. After an a panegyric on the Tudor chimney, a portrait of Shakespeare, and an evocation of that lost art, the masque, the book surveys the period of Merrie England, the Imperial Age and England at war.

Genres: History

Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Peter Vansittart was a master of the historical novel and a writer of outstanding talent. He wrote more than 40 books, which also encompassed anthologies, works on literature and social history.

Reviews

[Lizixer · Rating 5 out of 5]

“…even if most of our popular history is a self regarding tall story I like to think that the gist of it was worth the telling”

So ends this tale of England that begins at the remains of ancient Albion and ends staring at the craters of the Somme.

Vansittart weaves a story that is sometimes dreamlike, sometimes gossipy, unflinching from English brutality, yet proud of our writers, a sense of Englishness as complex, much given to Radicalism but disliking Revolution.

This is narrative history, a novelist picking out the eccentric, the weird, the extreme. “Great” men and a few great women appear warts and all. There are strange juxtapositions, quotes from Shakespeare and songs from the music hall.

It carries you along, name checking all those people from history class, those events, the books you probably should have got round to reading.

This is an age when people struggle to define what being English is, how the English can be characterised. Some people even feel that Englishness has been hijacked and debased and want to reject it entirely in favour of Britishness. Yet books like this remind us that there is such a thing as Englishness. Being embarrassed about it is one of our defining characteristics. It’s what makes us English.