- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Mandarin; New edition edition (15 Aug 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0749319240
- ISBN-13: 978-0749319243
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.4 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 449,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £11.70
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in English Journey for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £11.70, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"English Journey is an important book that has a literary importance and social value that far exceeds the time it was written." Dame Beryl Bainbridge "This is a wonderful book: profound, wise, humane; a good companion indeed" Nina Bawden "Written in the elegant, simple language which was an essential part of Priestley's brilliance. It is, in consequence, a masterpiece." Roy Hattersley"
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Product Description
In 1933 J.B. Priestley made a journey through England. He travelled by train, bus and car, and on foot, talking to the people he met and taking in his surroundings. From the drowsy idyll of rural backwaters to the dark satanic landscapes of industrialized cities, he took a writer's eye and a warmly human sensibility, describing what he found with an insight that holds good today. The resulting book became one which defined an age, and influenced the political thought of the Forties and Fifties. But what probably ensured its enduring popularity above all else were Priestley's accounts of his encounters with a rich variety of English characters. This edition is published to coincide with the centenary of Priestley's birth.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
English Journey is a gem in its own right as a piece of travel writing but the fact that its was written in 1933 adds a fancinating historical dimension to Priestley’s tarvel around England by ‘motor coach’ which he describes as,
“They are voluptuous, sybaritic, of doubtful morality.”
Never has a coach been so eloquently painted in the reader’s mind. Moreover, with all the human touches that make you realise you are learning more about the author than about the place being visited,
“I spent the next day, which was fine and warm, at Bournville. There were several good reasons for doing this. To begin with, I was interested in the manufacture of chocolate, having bought and eaten in my time great quantities of the stuff, and having several times, when I was about ten tried unsuccessfully to make it myself.”
The book does more than present big adjectives and quirky childhood anecdotes. Priestly considers the fate of the industrial class and the economic state of Britain, post the Great War (1914-1918) in an insightful way by stepping out of middle-class London and right into the lives of the British working class.
This is a delightful read, better than Theroux’s (normally my favorite travel writer) rather turgid English travel writing, The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain, penned in 1982.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Of all the books that J B Priestley ever wrote this is undoubtedly a classic. Its subtitle is Being a Rambling but Truthful Account of What One Man Saw and Heard and Felt and Thought During a Journey Through England During the Autumn of the Year 1933. This establishes it as no merely pleasant travel book but a sharply observed and deeply felt portrait of an England essentially of contrasts. Priestley found no fewer than three Englands on his journey. The first was 'Old England, the country of the cathedrals and minsters and manor houses and inns, of Parson and Squire, guide book and quaint highways and byways England'. The second England was a much grimmer place : 'the nineteenth-century England, the industrial England of coal, iron, steel, cotton, wool, railways...slums...sooty dismal little towns, and still sootier grim fortress-like cities'. Finally, there was 'the new post-war England...of arterial and by-pass roads, of filling stations...of giant cinemas and dance halls and cafes... But what Priestley indentified most sharply of all was the 'North-South Divide' long before that term came into common use : in the South reasonably civilised and prosperous places in which to live; in the North places of wretchedness, decay and deprivation. And although there is bitter condemnation about this latter state of affairs the book is full of the common warp and weft of daily life, the determination of individual human beings to make the best of things, the diverse tapestry that was England in the 1930s. Priestley cast a critical but humane eye over it and created a masterpiece of social commentary that has become a valuable part of social history.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
In the autumn of 1933 J.B. Priestley set off on a journey around England - fifteen years after the end of the First World War and six before the start of the Second. He draws a picture of a country caught between those two events, with the new before it - shiny glass factories on the road to Southampton - and the old still lingering - in the coal fields of the North East. The book is peopled with characters both great and small and in many ways this is part of the appeal of this book.
This book is set in a similar period to some of the works of George Orwell and Laurie Lee, but has the advantage of a much wider geographic range. The book is a pleasure to read and provides a real insight into the lives of people in England between the wars. Highly recommended.
This book is set in a similar period to some of the works of George Orwell and Laurie Lee, but has the advantage of a much wider geographic range. The book is a pleasure to read and provides a real insight into the lives of people in England between the wars. Highly recommended.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Essential reading for every Englishman
As Secretary for the Friends For Upton Library, my task has been contacting and inviting local authors to give a talk for a small, local audience. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Alan Burridge
Fantastically written and still scarily relevant today
I make no apology for reviewing a book first published in 1934 here. If you read my recent review of Owen Hatherley's great polemic, `The New Ruins of Great Britain', (and... Read more
Published 17 months ago by J. Coulton
social journey
Purchased the book because I during my Grand tour Great Britain by Train I read the English Journey written by Beryl Bainbridge. Great writer & wonderful person! Read more
Published 20 months ago by winky
A journey well worth travelling
Not so much a journey of England as a journey of J.B. Priestley's England, his journey, his views. The book concentrates on people as much as the country. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. G. Proctor
English Journey by J.B. Priestley ed 1987
A truly wonderful insight into the England of just pre-war. It is an account of day-to day life across the country taking us into business life, leisure and the hardships of the... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Christine Clarke
Shabby copy-editing by less than Great Northern
"The text of this 75th anniversary edition has been restored to its full length and is exactly as it was when first published in 1934", crows the Editor's note. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Diana S
Unfinished Journey
I have not finished this book yet, as it is not one that you read as you would a novel. However I have enjoyed what I have seen so far and I look forward to continuing the journey. Read more
Published on 2 April 2010 by John E. Moutell
Amazing resonances even in the 21st century
Although this book was written in the 1930s some of the descriptions of life and the lot of the working classes have striking resemblances even today. Read more
Published on 2 April 2010 by Stanley J Marut
JB at his best
I bought this as a present for wife after seeing reference to it on TV. Although out of print I found a copy on Amazon and the purchase and delivery were without any hassle and... Read more
Published on 23 April 2009 by M. Birkinshaw
A fascinating time-piece
A fascinating account, especially the first half of the book, into pre-war England with some memorable scenes drawn of his encounters. Read more
Published on 29 May 2002
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
