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Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England
 
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Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England (Paperback)

by Stuart Maconie (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
RRP: £11.99
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Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England + Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North + Thank You for the Days: A Boys' Own Adventures in Radio and Beyond
Price For All Three: £20.59

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Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Ebury Press (5 Mar 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0091926505
  • ISBN-13: 978-0091926502
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.4 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 747 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #13 in  Books > Travel & Holiday > Travel Writing

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Product Description

Review
'Taken as a whole, the book amounts to a time capsule of England as it is now; it is, in its quirky offbeat way, a celebration of this country's extra-ordinary capacity to accomodate change while remaining essentially the same.' --Mail on Sunday, 8 March, 2009

Review
'It is these juxtapositions of the high and the low, the hip and the furiously unfashionable, or, if you like, the sublime and the ridiculous, that make Maconie such an entertaining tour guide.'

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England
82% buy the item featured on this page:
Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England 4.5 out of 5 stars (11)
£7.17
Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North
7% buy
Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North 3.8 out of 5 stars (73)
£5.59
Thank You for the Days: A Boys' Own Adventures in Radio and Beyond
4% buy
Thank You for the Days: A Boys' Own Adventures in Radio and Beyond 3.9 out of 5 stars (14)
£7.83
Cider with Roadies
4% buy
Cider with Roadies 4.4 out of 5 stars (28)
£5.99
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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not the Daily Mail, 7 April 2009
By T. Evans "TimE" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I found this even better than Pies and Prejudice with Maconie coming across as a thoroughly decent, thoughtful cove. This is categorically not the breast-beating, self-proclaimed "honest-to-good British bulldog" beloved of Fleet Street. It's a world of quiet gestures and a celebration of the workaday pleasures of living in Britain. Most Brits don't like alcopops...they like tea. The phrase "Daily Mail readers" is a hackneyed device to lump those of a braying bent into a worn-out cliche. To his credit, Maconie never really uses it, preferring instead to actually judge his subjects - from trainspotters to tea shop staff - on their own merits. It's not a book of lazy generalisations...but it's a damn fine book.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Adventures on the High Teas, 31 Mar 2009
I absolutely adored Pies & Prejudice and Cider With Roadies, and while I was eagerly awaiting Stuart Maconie's latest book, I didn't think I was going to identify with it in quite the same way. I needn't have worried, I loved it.

As well as exploring quaint villages and historic towns, he celebrates English humour, food and music, and stops off in places which have been influential in England's literary and cinematic heritage, including Jane Austin's old stomping ground of Bath and Knutsford in Cheshire (the real-life setting for Cranford), as well as a Brief Encounter with Carnforth Railway Station.

Anyone expecting Maconie to sneer at Middle England with a huge Northern chip on his shoulder will be disappointed. He comes across as a genuinely nice guy (`The English Bill Bryson' according to the cover) and the book is infused with warmth and affection for English traditions and heritage, with only a hint of gentle mockery at the most bizarre. As usual with his books, I was chuckling and nodding with recognition all the way through.

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30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Melancholic and joyful too, 16 Mar 2009
By ds (Whitby, UK) - See all my reviews
  
As a sometime exiled Northerner it could only have been a matter of time before Maconie decided to create a companion of sorts to his joyous Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North, and here it is. Anyone expecting withering broadsides at the Home Counties is going to leave with a sense of bitter and chippy [Northern] disappointment. No matter, this book is not for them; instead it is a celebration of a Britishness (and also, quite separately an Englishness) that, while not being of the wild, untamed and windswept north, is in its own way just as wonderful.

The starting point is considering what actually constitutes Middle England. The temptation is to think of it as a rather pampered, hectoring cultural hinterland, full of angry calls to Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 and whinges about immigrants and workshy layabouts. Instead, Maconie rather refreshingly infuses these places (and their people) with a warmth and a welcome lack of finger-wagging metropolitan liberal judgement.

As it turns out, the so-called foaming Daily Mail-reading mob are rather more liberal and tolerant than we are mostly led to believe; no more so than at the start of his journey as he describes a sleepy Sunday afternoon in Meriden, delighting in observing the minutiae of the passers-by and the local shop.

For me though, the best part of the book is a treat indeed from a music journo of his rare erudition: his journey to Hergest Ridge and the surrounding area where he manages to talk about Mike Oldfield, Syd Barrett and Nick Drake in a truly affecting and moving way; so much so that I really want to have a look around Tanworth. Now. The church sounds especially lovely.

These ruminations on music, the poetry of Auden and Brief Encounter amongst other things all join together to paint a sometimes rather wistful and melancholic picture of an England almost past. There is a feeling evoked occasionally that we are on the cusp of losing some vital part of our identity that we will never quite get back.

It's not all bad news, though. In amongst the melancholy is a sense of playful yet rather deep love of the country and all its foibles and tics. Yes, some things are being lost, but new traditions and wonders are rising in their place. England (specifically) is not just the land of the hoodie and the binge drinker, no matter what certain, more hysterical, sections of our press might say. And this book is an unironic celebration of all of that. Another England, not like the one of his (also rather wonderful) previous book, but one worth celebrating all the same.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cracking Read
After putting 'northerness' under the microscope in Pies and Prejudice Maconie goes looking for what makes Middle England tick. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Graeme Wright

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrible title, but a very good read
Stuart Maconie has written a funny and interesting book about an unfashionable subject. No-one will anatomise today's Middle England better than this. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Booklover

4.0 out of 5 stars Stu opens the door on Middle England
The follow up to Pies & Prejudice is another excellent insight into being English. In his inimitable manner, Stuart introduces us (if we are not there already) to the delights of... Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. Chadwick

5.0 out of 5 stars Adventures on the High Teas
Excellent book. Stuart Maconie's trademark dry sense of humour. Very entertaining read and a good follow on to his previous book. Highly recommended!
Published 2 months ago by Mrs. K. Scott

2.0 out of 5 stars Meanders along nicely but lacks a cutting edge
This is a nice, unchallenging read but you really feel it could have been so much more. Maconie dislikes soft targets, so he tells us, and frequently holds back when he really... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Gazza

4.0 out of 5 stars Great as usual but editor needs to check!
I love Stuart Maconie's writing and will always read anything he publishes. But his editors need to do a better job of checking as this book is full of errors. Read more
Published 3 months ago by SueBee

5.0 out of 5 stars Stuart Maconie reads an extract from Adventures on the High Teas
Customer Video Review

Length:: 3:40 Mins
Published 3 months ago by K. Johnson

4.0 out of 5 stars More Maconie - this time its the Middle Class
Anyone whos read a Stauart Maconie book before or heard his radio show will know what to expect. This time he turns his attention - cutting and critical, but often with humour and... Read more
Published 4 months ago by D. G. Jones

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