A special edition of England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell reissued with a bright retro design to celebrate Pan's 70th anniversary. Banished from his native Scotland by a curious clause in his father's will, Donald Cameron moves to London and decides to conduct a study of the English people; a strange race who, he is told, have built an entire national identity around a reverence for team spirit and the memory of Lord Nelson . . . What follows is one of the funniest social satires ever written. Whether Cameron is haplessly participating in a village cricket match, being shown around an exclusive golf course, or trying to watch a rugby match in the thick London fog, his affectionately bemused portrait of his new countrymen is a joy to read. Reminiscent of the gentle wit of P. G. Wodehouse and Jerome K. Jerome, England, Their England offers a delightful portrait of Britain in the 1920s.

""It's very, very comforting, it's very funny and whenever you think things in this country are pretty bonkers then you can read this book from the thirties and realise 'Ah, they've always been fairly similar' ... I love it."" IAN HISLOP

As a young Scot exiled to the alien landscape of 1920s England, Douglas Cameron finds himself navigating his way through the intimacies and excesses of a nation undergoing great cultural and social upheaval. Witnessing the last gasps in the demise of a privileged earlier world, our hero finds himself negotiating archetypal English situations, including the lavish country house weekend, a traditional fox hunt, international diplomacy at the League of Nations and, most famously, a village cricket match - all as part of his efforts to compile a book capturing the essence of Englishness. Affectionately narrated, eloquent and poignant, yet at times just slightly ruthless and often with an acerbic note of satire, this description of England in the throes of social turmoil remains an hilarious, irreverent yet compassionate portrait.

""5 stars A CLASSIC OF ENGLISH HUMOUR"" Since winning the James Tait Black Memorial Prize on publication in 1933, England, Their England has retained an enduring appeal for generations and is now regarded as a classic of literary humour.

"5 stars - "So much more than just the cricket match.""

"5 stars - "Fun Everlasting.""

"5 stars - "Wonderful.""

"5 stars - "Such a good book.""

England, Their England is an affectionately satirical inter-war comic novel first published in 1933. It hit the right spot at the time and became a bestseller, and has endured as a classic of humour, transending the passage of time. It is particularly famed for its portrayal of a village cricket match. The plot - if there can be said to be a plot - is set in 1920s England, the book is written as if a travel memoir by a young Scotsman who had been invalided away from the Western Front, "Donald Cameron", whose father's will forces him to reside in England. There he writes for a series of London newspapers, before being commissioned by a Welshman to write a book about the English from the view of a foreigner. Taking to the country and provincial cities, Donald spends his time doing research for a book on the English by consorting with journalists and minor poets, attending a country house weekend, serving as private secretary to a Member of Parliament, attending the League of Nations, and playing village cricket. The village cricket match is the most celebrated episode in the novel, and a reason cited for its enduring appeal.An important character is Mr Hodge; a caricature of Sir John Squire (poet and editor of the London Mercury) while the cricket team described in the book's most famous chapter is a representation of Sir John's Cricket Club - the Invalids - which survives today. The book ends in the ancient city of Winchester, where MacDonnell had gone to school. New introduction by Alan Sutton

One of a genre at the time, the novel is examines the changing nature of English society in the interwar period. The style and subject matter is comparable to the works of Evelyn Waugh, his contemporary, and earlier writers such as P.G.Wodehouse and Jerome K. Jerome. It is also known for its portrayal of traditional village cricket.The novel won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1933.

Set in 1920s England, the book is written as if a travel memoir by a young Scotsman who had been invalided away from the Western Front, "Donald Cameron," whose father's will forces him to reside in England. There he writes for a series of London newspapers before being commissioned by a Welshman to write a book about the English from the view of a foreigner. Taking to the country and provincial cities, Donald spends his time carrying out research for a book on the English by consorting with journalists and minor poets, attending a country house weekend, serving as private secretary to a Member of Parliament, attending the League of Nations, and playing village cricket. The village cricket match is the most celebrated episode in the novel, and a reason cited for its enduring appeal. A key character is Mr Hodge; a caricature of Sir John Squire (poet and editor of the London Mercury) while the cricket team described in the book's most famous chapter is a representation of Sir John's Cricket Club -- the Invalids -- which survives today.

A VISIT TO AMERICA CHAPTER ONE Approaching Manhattan up by the long-stretching island. quot WALT WHITMAN. THE voyage was uneventful. My main impressions of it were the width of the Atlantic, which I had never before crossed, the number of references made by my fellow passengers to the salutary effect of sea-air upon the human constitution, and the benevolent expression upon the face of President Harding, whose portrait presided, like a Patron Saint, over most of our activ ities. It is true, now that I come to look back upon it, that few, if any, Americans on the ship referred to Mr. Harding in conversation as a Saint, or seemed at all pleased to be sailing under his Patronage. But perhaps they were political opponents, and therefore biased against the good man. At any rate they were unani mous, for some reason which I could not fathom, in the opinion that no ship connected in any way with President Harding was likely to run out of oil On the morning of the seventh day the first incident occurred since the evening at Cobh nee Queens town, when dainty Irish colleens had tried to sell us genuine hand-made peasant lace from Manchester, and broths of boys had offered us unique bargains 2 A VISIT TO AMERICA mass-produced in shillelaghs. We saw land. Long Island appeared on the horizon. A few hours later we arrived at Quarantine and halted for the Medical Examination. It was a long business, but it incommoded us not a whit. For the Hygienic Theory of the United States appears to be based on a remarkable notion. Anyone who can afford to buy a first-class ticket is automatically presumed to be free from all contagious infection. A doctor com ing from a campaign against bubonic plague in Turkey, a medical missionary from the yellow fever districts of Central Africa, an explorer from the typhus infested villages of Turkestan, all these are exempt from medical inspection if they have taken the precau tion of travelling first class. But let a man be as free from germs as an iceberg, and let him scrub himself in antiseptics three times a day, and let him travel in the steerage class, and by Heavens he will learn that Quarantine is no idle word. For at least an hour we leant in a superior manner on the rail, while our poorer fellow passengers were presumed to be suffering from the deadliest and most baffling diseases known to, or unknown by, medical science, and as we leant we affirmed and re-affirmed and stated frankly and repeated with the utmost em phasis at our command, to each and all our charming American friends on board, that the Skyline of Man hattan not only came up to, but far exceeded our wild est, our most hallucinatory we groped frantically for bigger, taller words expectations. A VISIT TO AMERICA 3 As the liner steamed slowly up the Hudson, the stream of expert pointers-out grew thicker and thicker, and better and better informed. quot The one on the left, Mr. Macdonell, is the Woolworth Building next to it is the Chrysler Building, and beyond the Chrysler is the Empire State. But the building which you can t see is Number One, Broadway, the office of the Stand ard Oil Company. After I had duly pigeonholed this information, the next one would reverse the order of the buildings, and add that I couldn t see Number One, Broadway, the office of the Cunard Company, and then a third would substitute the R. C. A. for Woolworth, and the Irving Trust for the Empire State, andadd that Number One, Broadway, was the office of Messrs, J. P. Morgan. But all were agreed on one point, the invisibility of that mysterious building. I never discovered whether they were right or not, but I should imagine that they were not. As we advanced closer and closer, the effect of the Skyline was somewhat counter-balanced by the sink ing feeling induced by the nearness of the Customs Examination. In Europe we hear more about the hor rors of the latter even than about the magnificence of the former...