Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England
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Stuart Maconie discovers whether Middle England is a place or a feeling... all described with his usual charm and wit. Lonely Planet 20090301 Maconie's gift is finding beauty in the most unexpected places and after reading this you'll want to call up Google maps and plan your own journey. It's a wonderfully enriching read. News of the World 20090308 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 20090308 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. Mail on Sunday 20090308
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.'
--This text refers to an alternate
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
35 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Just be careful what you say in Maconie's presence, as whatever you...
This is surprisingly, quite a pleasant travelogue by Stuart Maconie, and reveals him to be far more than just a typical radio presenter steeped predominantly in music. Read more
Published 5 months ago by SMc
Very Disappointing: A Travelogue of southern England not a search for...
I enjoyed 'Pies and Prejudice' which was a tour of the North. When I bought this book I expected more to be made of the concept of 'Middle England' which is after all a concept... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Jay
Good Comment on Middle England.
On the face of it this book is a bit formulistic. Get an advance for expenses, roam around the country visiting different towns based on a theme (in this case "Middle England") and... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Bob from Beds
Superb
As a Scot who has lived in England I thought this wee ramble around middle England was both accurate and hilarious. More please!
Published 13 months ago by Stella Bridger
Enjoyable and insightful
I enjoyed this book very much. It is partly a Bryson-like trip to various places which might in some way be linked to "Middle England" and partly an attempt to analyse what... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Sid Nuncius
Not such a bad place to end up
An essentially decent man, Stuart Maconie, explores the essentially decent towns of Middle England, keen to find the sometimes non-existent positive aspects of the places he... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Clive A. H. Still
Lay off the poiltical bias...
This at times was a very interesting and enjoyable read, full of anecdotes and witty asides. However, what spoiled this book for me was the constant interjection of Maconie's own... Read more
Published 21 months ago by S. WILSON
Another delightful book by Stuart McConie
This is the third book that I have read by Stuart McConie-it is a delight to read-full of humour. I would recommend it to anyone.
Published 21 months ago by Mrs. Kath Bowe
Misadventures on the high teas
A rather brittle version of a Bill Bryson travel tale - interesting detail now and then, but an awareness of his own cleverness makes for tiresome reading and the chip on his... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Claire Evans
Not a Bunch of Reactionary Bigots
In this book, Stuart Maconie takes a pleasant-enough wander through an assortment of English towns and cities that are not in the North, except Knutsford and Carnforth, which are. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Ian Calderwood
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