God is an Englishman [Paperback]

R.F. Delderfield (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket Books; 10 edition (1973)
• ASIN: B000KDIKUY
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best family sagas, April 20, 2008

By 

Nina M. Osier (Randolph, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Is an Englishman (Paperback)

Adam Swann has followed his family's tradition of military service for long enough to turn 30. He's seen a lot during those years, including a horrific massacre of civilians. When chance places a fortune in rubies in his hands, he's more than ready to make drastic changes. Back to England he goes, the England of a world just prior to the American Civil War, looking for a better way to spend his life. He finds it in two places. First, in a revolutionary business idea sparked by an encounter with a railway official; and second, in a runaway young woman. He marries the woman, factory heiress Henrietta Rawlinson (who's swiftly disinherited by her infuriated father), and he turns the idea into a hauling firm that deliberately fits itself into all the gaps the railway system cannot fill.

That's the bare outline. What makes this novel remarkable, though, isn't its plot. It's the characters, and the way author Delderfield lets them grow naturally out of the time and place in which he sets them. Adam Swann is in many ways a man ahead of that time, disgusted by what he's seen in war and determined to make his way in the world without committing outrages against basic human decency. In fact, he's determined to make a difference for the better while succeeding as a businessman. Henrietta, blessed with her enterpreneur father's sharp mind and quick wits for commerce, grows from a willful, uneducated and thoroughly spoiled girl into a worthy and even challenging partner for Adam in the course of the book's 800-some pages. Nothing seems forced, and none of the details of Victorian England ring false, in all of those pages. Some of the best reading comes from secondary characters who weave in and out of the main story, because each is well drawn and interesting - no matter how brief the appearance.

A tour-de-force, all in all. One of the best "family sagas" around, still, nearly 40 years after its publication.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Great Read!, September 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: God is an Englishman (Paperback)

I can think of few better authors to take along on a long plane ride than Delderfield. God Is an Englishman is the first of a trilogy that runs a little out of gas by the end of the third book, but not in the first. To Serve Them All My Days got me hooked on Delderfield, and this series continued it. I can also recommend his book Diana. Alot of his works are out of print, although you can find them at liabraries, or Amazon's auction site -- or bookfinder.com

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very engrossing read!, March 9, 2002

By 

June P. Spear (Auburn, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God is an Englishman (Paperback)

This book is a must read for any Anglophile. The story traces the development of a haulage firm that serves all of Enland and Wales and part of Scotland. While that is the major focus, the family life of the founder of "Swan on Wheels" is very much a part of it. In fact, all the characters involved are well presented with divergent and believable personalities.