A Survey Of England

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28471, 28 December 1957, Page 3

A Survey Of England

Everyday Enfcland. By Monica Redlich. Gerald Duckworth. 181 pp. |

This brief sut brilliant survey of a nation, its ethnological and geographical features, its customs, virtues and {weaknesses, should find a place |in the bookshelves of all who halve regard for their British heritage. The writer is the English .wife of a Danish diplomat. She sketches with skill the early beginnings of the coun? try and the bewildering mixture of races that has gone to the make-up of *2oth century England, but her; heart is plainly in the England of today as it has evolved from/ a thousand years of civilisation! with its legacy of Roman roads,,; early British placenames, Norman architecture, and the colourful; cultivation of the English countryside. She is well versed in both the urban and rustic way of: life, and by sketching the histories of imaginary but typical families she brings into clear relief a picture of the complicated social make-up which has evolved, and is continuing to evolve, in the life of the British people. I

Mrs Redlich draws a pleasant skefch of a village of perhaps 400 inhabitants clustering round a centuries old! grey stone church, and of a in which civic buildings of, expensive and imposing ugliijess dominate the scene. In both cases the residents are equally certain that theirs is the finest plice in the ’world in which to livel

Notwithstanding the changes wrought by 'the levelling of incomes since 'the war, the classsystem is still an ineradicable feature of social life. Except in suburban circles, where to keep up with the' Joneses is an inescapable obligation, money plays a very small part in the social hierarchy, but an indispensable detail in the, make-up of “good” English society is that purity of vowel-sounds- involved in the word But with all this seemingly cherished lip-service to snobbery, the exception that proves the rule can by intellectual achievement,; outstanding merit or just sheer unpretentious goodness bridge any gap and scale nny social height;; which in plain English means that snobbery is more apparent than real, and democracy rises triumphant in th* l outspoken, give-and-take world of England todsly. The author has a deep respect and affection-for the large masses of industrial and agricultural workers on which ultimately the prosperity qf the country depends, as well as for the few remaining craftsmen which a massproduction economy must necessarily oust ; from their skilful painstaking • occupations. She stresses the (kindness and generosity which the English will readily display when confronted by another’s) misfortune. In a brill’pnt final chapter the author gives examples of the poetic with which an Englishman’s conversation is interlarded. To jgive only a few. He has to thank Shakespeare that he ’’hasn’t slept a wink,” Charles Lamb for “the old familiar faces,’’ and Thomas’Gray that he can be “far from she madding crowd.” It is unlikely that he will know the source cf all these utterances They are just part of his rich cultural inheritance. The book has some well chosen photographs to illustrate its theme, and can be confidently recommended to readers of all tastes.