England, Their England

A. G. Macdonell

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England, Their England won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. 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.