Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Hey nonny nonny, 20 Jul 2006
Lewis made me laugh out loud and that'll do for me. Imagine a Louis Theroux or Danny Wallace character wandering England looking for those ancient English customs that we hear so much about but tend to ignore. Why do we proudly fly the cross of St. George on our car and shout from high our rekindled pride in Englishness but feel too embarrassed to sing a folk song or go morris dancing? Lewis doesn't simply observe these customs (together with sun worshipping, straw bear following, tree talking) - he joins in to try and find the English spirit within him, something to connect him to his English forefathers. Lewis' conclusions are perhaps disappointing for those looking to find the link between the mists of ancient time and the customs of today but a boon to those looking to have fun, drink ale and throw off the embarrassment of singing ta-loo-ra-loo-ra-lye and waving a hankie about. Don't show your English pride by singing anti-Irish/Scottish/Welsh songs - show it by learning an old ballad or two and sing it in the pub to the accompaniment of a melodeon. Better still - get this book, order yourself a pint of warm real ale and settle back for a very amusing read.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
One Mans Search for his Roots, 27 April 2005
It's good. It's very good. One mans search for his roots, his culture. It includes real ale, wassailing, mumming, Cliffe Bonfire Boys, hobby horses, pagans and morris dancing.Now the penultimate word might raise heckles - "He's saying it's all pagan, is he?" - but rest assured, I found it one of the best de-bunking books on English Folk Traditions I've ever read. And funny, as well.
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10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Brilliant, 23 May 2005
By A Customer
As an expat Englishman, this book was a joyful tonic to life abroad. Richard Lewis brilliantly unpicks a variety of weird and wonderful and very English traditions, managing to inform and amuse at the same time. He combines his history lessons with a truly mischievous but understated sense of humour, whose cumulative effect had me reduced to uncontrollable giggles on a number of occasions. What's refreshing about this book is that, unlike so many other books of a similar genre, Lewis never patronises the people he writes about - no mean feat given the general dottiness of what most of them get up to. Quite the reverse, in fact. He believes, often in the face of apparently scant evidence, that they have something to teach him, and treats them with respect and affection. The effect is to lend these often strange people a curious dignity as they do their little bit to maintain these traditions which keep England English. This elevates the book from the "Look at me, I wrote a book" stable of narcissitic travel writing (if that's the correct term) to something rewarding and compelling and, above all, very enjoyable. Here in the middle of America, with its endless retail chains and identikit lifestyles, I relished the chance to tour the country I left behind me in all its idiosyncratic glory. It made me homesick, but I loved every minute of it. Thank you, Richard Lewis.
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