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In Memory of England: A Novelist's View of History by Peter Vansittart
His style and eye for oddity make him an addictive guide.
- GenresHistory
Hardcover
First published October 1, 1998
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17 people want to read
About the author
Peter Vansittart
62 books10 followersPeter 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.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 19, 2024
“…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.
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.
Displaying 1 of 1 review