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Review
`It is brief, compelling and essential summer reading. This autumn it ought to be distributed to every post-GCSE history class in the country. It would rescue them from the footing syllabus at so-called A/S level, which is neither `advanced' nor `scholarly' and drags them down a year... It is so uplifting to read without clutter about these `visions' of England and find an author who is not ashamed to include old favourites in his essay on them. He himself is living proof of their power, inspired as a boy by art and books and as an older man by the garden that he made on a bold scale. He is an answer, one among many, to the deconstructors and under-cutters of the very idea of Englishness. Gardeners will love his book. It is based on conviction and experience, guides to the threads he selects with lucidity.' --The Financial Times
`for someone who would like to know what it is to feel identifiably English, Sir Roy provides a useful tour. He takes us through some of the main iconography of the Tudor period, finding for himself the roots of his definition of the English temper and achievement. He moves beyond the Tudors soon enough, describing poetry, landscape and building, and by the time he reaches the Victorians he is also looking at interpretations of English culture by critics such as Matthew Arnold.' --The Spectator
`We should be grateful to Sir Roy Strong for this book. It is an exploration of the themes that shape our sense of England: a meditation, a hymn, a road map... It is a blueprint for the national identity England could promote today, as the Union fragments... Visions of England preaches peace, in a `democratic and inclusive way'. It does not only represent the journey of Sir Roy's life, it sets a course that could, if only the authorities would wake up to it, be followed now' --Country Life Magazine
`for someone who would like to know what it is to feel identifiably English, Sir Roy provides a useful tour. He takes us through some of the main iconography of the Tudor period, finding for himself the roots of his definition of the English temper and achievement. He moves beyond the Tudors soon enough, describing poetry, landscape and building, and by the time he reaches the Victorians he is also looking at interpretations of English culture by critics such as Matthew Arnold.' --The Spectator
`We should be grateful to Sir Roy Strong for this book. It is an exploration of the themes that shape our sense of England: a meditation, a hymn, a road map... It is a blueprint for the national identity England could promote today, as the Union fragments... Visions of England preaches peace, in a `democratic and inclusive way'. It does not only represent the journey of Sir Roy's life, it sets a course that could, if only the authorities would wake up to it, be followed now' --Country Life Magazine
Book Description
A major contribution to the debate about English identity that locates the roots of Englishness in the cultural imagination.
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Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Visions of England" is a wonderfully apt name for this book. The self image of nations is always as much a product of the collective imagination as a concrete reality. The contention of this book is that the English have only defined themselves twice in their history. For many years "English" was conflated with "British" (at least for those in England) and as the Union that made Britain more than just England starts to be un-made the book asks what it means to be English.
Such a question in the hands of the uninformed could easily become both offensive and ridiculous. But that is not the case with this book. Although the author takes the optimistic view that you may be able to read the book in a single sitting, this book manages to feel both learned and inclusive at the same time. The author gives you enough information to be able to follow his lines of thought without either patronising or assuming a knowledge that may not be present.
As an English person now living in Australia I found this book wonderfully accurate at indentifying the things that I think of when I think of England - and that is the whole point of the book. England is defined by the things that the English think of when they think of England. The world may have turned but certain aspects of the county are held to be unchanging and defining.
So is Englishness a thing that is only rooted in the past with no relevance to today? - this book would seem to suggest not.
I would recommend this book most highly as a though provoking and sensitive account of how many of came to think some of things we hold to be true.
Highly Recommended.
Such a question in the hands of the uninformed could easily become both offensive and ridiculous. But that is not the case with this book. Although the author takes the optimistic view that you may be able to read the book in a single sitting, this book manages to feel both learned and inclusive at the same time. The author gives you enough information to be able to follow his lines of thought without either patronising or assuming a knowledge that may not be present.
As an English person now living in Australia I found this book wonderfully accurate at indentifying the things that I think of when I think of England - and that is the whole point of the book. England is defined by the things that the English think of when they think of England. The world may have turned but certain aspects of the county are held to be unchanging and defining.
So is Englishness a thing that is only rooted in the past with no relevance to today? - this book would seem to suggest not.
I would recommend this book most highly as a though provoking and sensitive account of how many of came to think some of things we hold to be true.
Highly Recommended.
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