English Villages

Britain in Pictures #11

by Edmund Blunden

In this book, the author writes of the nature of the English village in general, and takes the reader on a nostalgic journey around the world of the village, the school, the farm, and village trades and games.

Genres: Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

Author, critic, and poet (the latter which for which he is most well known) Edmund Charles Blunden was born in London, and educated at The Queen's College at Oxford. In 1915 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant with the Royal Sussex Regiment which he served with through the end of the war. He saw heavy action on the Western Front at both Ypres and the Somme, and was awarded the Military Cross. Miraculously he was never severely injured.

Following the war he served as Professor of English at the University of Tokyo from 1924-1927. He returned to England as magazine editor, and in 1931 he became a tutor at Oxford University where his writing career flourished. Post Second World War he became Professor of English Literature in Hong Kong.

He succeeded fellow Great War poet Robert Graves as Oxford Professor of Poetry, but lecturing proved to be a strain and he resigned after two years. His remaining years were spent in Suffolk, where he died in 1974.

He remained good friends with fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon, and during his career edited some of the first editions of Wilfred Owen and Ivor Gurney's poetry contributing to their memory. He is commemorated on a plaque in Westminster Abbey along with 15 other poets of the First World War.

Reviews

[Dr Susan Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a 'fan' of the Britain in Pictures series with all the erudite writing from different British authors of the time and excellent colour plates of English watercolours by some of the most 'famous' and black and white illustrations, including Thomas Bewick tailpieces, illuminating the text. Blunden's selection of English villages is enough to whet the appetite (and even includes some I've visited such as Broadway and Iffley. A book to dip into again and again and art to inspire. My two copies were acquired in 1997 and 2014.

[Catherine Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick and easy read although some sentences were very long and had to be reread. Moving and poetic but sometimes a bit pretentious and affected.