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

by Joe Bennett

Fifteen years ago, Joe Bennett left England for a holiday, but 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 cheeriness, and chicken tikka poker machine pubs—things aren't what they used to be. The longer Joe travels, the more he wonders whether things were ever what they used to be in England. Even a century ago, H. V. Morton, the nation's most celebrated eulogiser, was In Search of England. Crisscrossing the country by varying means of transport and with varying degrees of enthusiasm, Joe Bennett delivers a dazzlingly funny and poignant portrait of his homeland—part love letter, part eulogy and part diatribe, it is a wonderful memoir that establishes Bennett as one of the most engaging travel writers.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Humor, British Literature, Audiobook, Anthropology

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Julian "Joe" Bennett (born 20 April 1957) is a writer and columnist living in Lyttelton, New Zealand.

Born in England, he emigrated to New Zealand when he was twenty-nine. Bennett is a columnist for Christchurch's newspaper The Press and the author of several books.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

In middle age, Joe Bennett returned from his adopted country of New Zealand to take a tour around his native Britain, following roughly in the footsteps of H.V. Morton (In Search of England). Initially he intended to hitchhike, but when this was entirely unsuccessful he cobbled together a combination of buses, trains, walking, and a car borrowed from an old friend. His disappointed, critical, satirical approach is in the vein of Bill Bryson’s recent The Road from Little Dribbling, and although I found the book mildly funny in places I mostly enjoyed it simply because Bennett stops in a lot of random places I happen to be familiar with: Newbury, Winchester, Salisbury, Dorchester, St. Austell.

A few representative quotes:

“For me, the taste of a warm, flat, thin pint of bitter is the thing that tells me I am home.”

“Meanwhile the English delight in bemoaning their climate, stressing its dampness. It suits the national trait of self-deprecation, and of muddling along somehow despite mild adversity. It’s the attitude expressed in that defining phrase, ‘mustn’t grumble’, striking a uniquely English note of making do, getting by, being grateful for small mercies, and knowing that there’s others worse off.”

“In In Search of England Morton comes across as the debonair English gent, the patriot, the jovial patrician in a Bertie Wooster car. And for me that pose is beginning to ring hollow. … increasingly it seems to me that [Morton’s] book is a form of propaganda. Morton was inventing England as much as he was discovering it.”

(And check out this metaphorical use of Donald Trump’s name, way back in 2006! “The pastry was a bomb-casing, as thick as a finger, as rich as Trump.”)

[Catherine Davison]

I get the distinct impression Bennett doesn’t much like women. The book is peppered with vitriolic references to women’s body shapes and I was astonished when I came across one mention of a “rather nice woman”, my astonishment was that he’d said something positive about a woman. It’s meant to be a fun read and for the most part it was but Bennett’s no H.V. Morton and this book should be retitled “In search of a pub”. I’m deliberately not giving it a star rating, it’s a very blokey book full of pub conversations and deliberate references to things most English folk ( Antique Roadshow folk) don’t talk about, yet somehow I doubt many men would bother to read it. There are two reasons I am glad I read it , it reminded me I have Betjeman’s biography on my TBR pile and it prompted me to find Laurie Lee’s As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning in my local op-shop.

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about an Englishman, then living in New Zealand, returning to his native country to hitchhike throughout it, in the footsteps of a long-gone author I've never heard of.

When he finds he can not hitchhike because no one will pick him up (such is the national spirit), he borrows a friend's Audi and makes a go of it anyway.

He is sometimes disappointed by his author's writing about certain places and at others dismayed at the pre-processed tourism and good times offered at others, but he clearly enjoys talking to locals (when they will...which certainly isn't always) and having something at a pub. Or several, at several pubs.

Overall I liked the book, especially due to the way the author compared what he saw to other things in interestingly new ways. I particularly found appealing this: "The Tethered Goats of Happiness"- though I am certain I cannot tell you why.

The book is not overtly humorous, though it is marketed as such. It's very English, subdued, and somewhat resigned. No thrill ride but I found it low-key interesting all the same.

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

You could probably fill a book with the names of all the books written about the English by the English, and those who are not quite English. I have only read a tiny fraction of them, but have enjoyed reading every one so far. From the late A.A.Gill (born in Scotland, but otherwise English) to Bill Bryson (born in Iowa, but desperate to be English) and BBC stalwart Jeremy Paxman, to name only a few, there are no shortage of English based scribblers with a book’s worth of opinions to voice on whatever it is to be English.

One advantage that I think Bennett does have over many of the other writers, is that not only is he English but he has lived in NZ for around half of his life, and so he has the advantage of seeing his Motherland through fresh eyes and is almost like an outsider in many ways, but still retains enough knowledge and memories of the country to have insider knowledge too.

I’ve read all of Bennett’s travel related books and for me he is like a more switched on and incisive Bill Bryson, having a far better grasp and understanding of England. As ever he approaches his subject with an open mind, but with a lingering sense of mischief too. He manages to uncover some of the hidden delights and ugly horrors to the land he no longer calls home, which are all part of the good, the bad and the ugly that make up England.

[Vyvien · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read a number of Joe Bennett's collections and there is no doubt he is a gifted writer, having the ability to nail a metaphor with unerring and enjoyable deftness. However, I really struggled to finish this one, and won't be reading any more of his work. I persisted throughout, finding some interest in his take on places I had visited around the same time, but after a while his itinerary of (a) find the cheapest meanest B&B room (b) visit and revel in nearest pub the grottier the better (c) travel to the next town, rinse and repeat - just got too much. About half way through the book his wit and language just couldn't assuage the dullness, nor the impression that he's a grumpy old curmudgeon whose soul hunkers down under a perpetual drizzle.

[Beth Beamish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Bennett is very funny. This book made me laugh out loud. It was also rather sad in places. Joe's encounters with the young people made England seem a hopeless, foul mouthed place. This book is very well written and the ending is genius.

[Anne Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Encouraged by his publisher Joe Bennett returns to England, determined to follow in the footsteps of H V Morton who wrote a book called "In Search of England" around 1926. He's sets out to hitchhike but this proves impossible - no one will stop, and he ends up borrowing a friend's car. Bennett has a great turn of phrase at times, the book is a series of vignettes as he travels the length and breadth of England with brief sojourns into Wales and Scotland. He sums up both the beauty of England, it's stoic and quirky characters alongside characterless development, disenfranchised youth and lumpy downtrodden inhabitants (often women). He spends a lot of time in pubs looking for people to talk to. In the end he is critical of Morton whom he believes finds the England he was looking for (romantic, beautiful, salt of the earth etc), and I guess Bennett does too - a mixed bag of highs and lows and nothing to change his mind that he made the right move when he immigrated. I enjoyed this as a light read but it won't be memorable.

[Diane Fordham]

Oh my goodness, what an arrogant, up his own arse, arse. The author is so unpleasant this book is going in the bin (an honour previously given only to Edwina Curry). He is critical of everything and seems intent on writing a book not about discovering England and the English but about making clever (he thinks) and sarcastic comments at every turn. Yet he fails to see his own deficiencies. At one point he is derogatory about ‘winos’ drinking in the street and then buys a bottle of beer to drink on the quayside. His evenings are spent getting totally obliterated in a local pub and no doubt disturbing others in the process, banging around in guest houses in the small hours and then nursing a hangover. Yup, total arse, and no stars at all for this one.

[Pete]

the publisher who asked Bennett to go to England and write about it erred badly, with the result that it's a warts & all book with excessive warts. the author seems to have gone to England to ridicule it, while ignoring the charm that remains. comparisons with his adopted New Zealand are irrelevant as that beautiful country has a myriad of warts of their own. even the great HV Morton comes in for criticism. by page 228 of 280 I'd had enough and gave it away. a poor travel book by a cynical writer.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Bennett is a Englishman who has spent most of life as an expatriate, visiting England so he can write about it (and complain about it). Ironically, given the title, he grumbles quite a bit. He grumbles about the class system. He grumbles about the social anxieties drummed up by the media. He grumbles about politics. He grumbles about the general English inability to open up to other people. Most of all, he grumbles about the way tourism has spoiled travel. On visiting the home town of Alice Liddell (Lewis Carroll's Alice), he mentions the Mad Hatter's Tea Room and the Tweedledum and Tweedledee suites in the hotel. He refrains from commenting further, "for fear of becoming shrill".

Bennett's journey parallels that of travel writer H.V. Morton, who went around England in his car in 1926, at a time when private travel was new. In his book In Search of England, Morton portrays the England of the shires, extolling in the country values of stout yeoman farmers, parsons, and squires. In reading Morton, one would hardly know that his travels occured at the same time as the social upheaval of the Great Strike. Bennett suspects that the manufactured quaintness he despises got its start at least partly from Morton.

Bennett prefers to see places as they are, unmediated by theme parks and interpretive centers. As he says when thinking of William Golding living in Salisbury, we assign meaning to the places we visit. Better to appreciate Salisbury in one's own mind than to buy a ticket for the "William Golding/Lord of the Flies Experience" (which thankfully doesn't exist).

One thing about England that Bennett does like is pubs. He likes the fact that pubs are "neutral territory" where people can let their guard down and be friendly with strangers. He likes English pubs because they are the only places that know how to serve bitter (slightly warm and flat). He also likes the fact that one can get a pork pie.

Bennett likes the freedom that comes with travel, the freedom to go where one wishes and see what one wants. He makes the point that this freedom is based on one's insiginificance while traveling. By that he means the traveler is beholden to no one; no one expects him to do anything in particular. (So turn off that bloody mobile phone!)

I liked this book. It reminded me a little of Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island in that both books are funny and critical of human foibles and anything that smacks of tweeness or touristy kitsch.However,both find a lot to like about England, most of which has little to do with tourist boards.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a warts-and-all travelogue written by an ex-pat Englishman who returned to the country of his birth after 18 years. Being an ex-pat myself, I can relate to what he has written. Though there are a few passages that made me cringe I like the honesty of it. It’s no eulogy full of touristy clichés about thatched cottages, quaint country locals, and vibrant city nightlife. The writer knows that the everyday life of most English people and the land they live in bears no resemblance to the dreamy English ideal that H. V. Morton eulogised in his In Search of England and that Enid Blyton distilled in her children’s books. To understand England and the English you need to understand the clash between the ideal and the reality. And this book gives you some idea of that. Paul Theroux perhaps did it better in his Kingdom by the Sea.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same author who wrote LAND OF TWO HALVES. And I found the same things annoying. In this book, the author is following the path around the UK (I have to say the UK because he dips his toes into Wales and Scotland) that some other author wrote about a million years ago. The Dude tries to hitch-hike around, but it doesn’t work out at all and ends up borrowing a car from a friend. I don’t really remember what else happened. Just his musing about all the towns his visited. It was nice coming from a NZ point of view, because after you read this book about the UK, coming from NZ, you never want to go back to the UK. It’s great and all, but ohmigod, just so many people and soooo dirty compared to NZ!

Grade: C

[Rachella Sinclair · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting something similar to Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island -- only in reverse. Unfortunately, it was missing the social insight, the humour and the writing ability.

As an expat myself, I understand how the perception of your birthplace can alter when seen through the lens on your adopted country. The old and clapped out becomes oddly quaint, the mundane, charming but Bennett fails to give any deep insight into what he perceives to be the "real" Briton when he peeks behind the curtain.

I blame the false constraint Bennet imposed upon the structure of his story, retracing the steps of an old author and trying to find the notable points of interest the writer of yore rhapsodised about (some of which obviously never existed).

[Mary Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1926, a guy named Morton wrote IN SEARCH OF ENGLAND after he drove a motorcar around the perimeter of the island. In 2005, Joe Bennett, a native Brit living in New Zealand, decided to follow Morton's route to see how things have changed. Both of them went mainly to towns & villages, not metropolitan areas. In 2004, Sheila & I visited a lot of the same places, so this book was pretty interesting to me. Joe spent an LOT of time in pubs, & the quality of the pub pretty well determined whether or not he liked the town.

[Nette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across on this book on Wendi's "to-read" list. Thanks, Wendi! I adored this book. Not many authors can pull of hilarious turns of phrase AND gorgeous prose: he's definitely in a league with Bill Bryson and even Paul Theroux. A few chapters in I ordered his other travel books, and now I'm going to try to get my hands on his collected columns.

[Heloise Jacobs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wonder if Musn't Grumble was a note to himself? He comes across as a grumpy old man. I can't say I liked this book, it had its moments of hilarity but they were few and far between. But I did finish it.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was sort of interesting, sort of amusing, and if I'd want a complete rundown on the pub scene in Britain, it would probably have filled the bill. Probably not recommended unless you're a complete Anglophile.

[Ipswichblade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was written in 2006 and already feels "old"!! The writer does a good job of following H V Morton's In Search Of England book route form 1926. I was interested to read about half way through the journey Bennett decides that Morton was seemingly making the England up.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun and interesting trtavel book about England and modern society

[Neil Munday · Rating 3 out of 5]

a dont bother to read this book .

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love English travel books where the writer observes things accurately or originally.

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very amusing account of Bennett's trip around England - a return to his native land. Insightful, laugh out loud at times, poignant at others. A thoroughly good read.