In Search Of England [Paperback]

H. V. Morton (Author), Jan Morris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2002

Currently in its 40th printing with its original publisher in the UK, this is the book that one British newspaper has called "travel writing at its best. Bill Bryson must weep when he reads it." Whether describing ruined gothic arches at Glastonbury or hilarious encounters with the inhabitants of Norfolk, Morton recalls a way of life far from gone even at the beginning of a new century.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Henry Vollam Morton was born in 1892 near Manchester, England. He became an international celebrity by scooping the world's press in the sensational discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in the early 1920s. His newfound fame subsequently led to a series of extraordinarily popular vignettes on English city and country life, which went on to sell millions of copies worldwide. He died in South Africa in 1979 at the age of eighty-six.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (April 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306811057
• ISBN-13: 978-0306811050
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #273,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could Have Written for the New Yorker Magazine, August 5, 2003

By 

P. Martin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Search Of England (Paperback)

What a great travel writer H.V. Morton is! He reminds me of Joseph Mitchell ("Up in the Old Hotel and Other Stories"), who wrote of similar experiences in and around New York City for the New Yorker magazine in the 1930's, 40's and 50's.

This book chronicles a solitary road trip that Morton took around England in the late 1920's. It tells the story of his experiences with local people and gives fascinating historical commentary about some of the sights. As such, it's got human interest, glimpses of life in rural England nearly 80 years ago as well as snippets of life in England over the centuries. Morton's writing style is simple, sincere and insightful. He makes you believe he loves what he's writing about.

He sets off from London and heads west/southwest along the coast of the English Channel to Land's End. From there he goes northeast along the Bristol Channel and then straight north to Gretna Green just over the border into Scotland ("This story has no right in this book and I apologize for writing it" he writes), along Hadrian's Wall and finally zig zags southward back to London.

In Cornwall ("There is a strangeness in Cornwall. You feel it as soon as you cross Tor Ferry.") he spent the night in a tiny bedroom of a cottage in St. Anthony-in-Roseland. "...I came here because I like the name." Prepared for the worst, he finally came across "a rosy middle-aged woman, wearing a print apron...standing at the door of a pink cottage looking at my car as though it were an unnatural phenomenon." Asking her where he might stay the night, she replied " `I've got nothing for dinner, sir, but eggs and cream, because we have no shops, and everything is brought us from Gerrans in motor car-or else I'd gladly give you my spare room.' I told her that eggs and cream were the only things I would dream of eating in St. Anthony-in-Roseland." He goes on to recreate the evening he shared with this woman, her husband and some neighbors, talking and listening to music from the ballroom in London's Savoy Hotel on the wireless.

In another adventure, Morton arrived at Wells Cathedral just before noon and saw "a crowd whispering, standing about, sitting on stone seats, leaning against pillars and tombs,...There were charabanc (sight seeing motor coach) parties, American families, market women, farmers and their wives... `What are they doing?' I asked a verger. `Waiting to see the clock strike twelve!' he replied. Then I remembered that in Wells Cathedral is one of the most exciting clocks in England; in fact, with the exception of the clock in Strasburg Cathedral, probably one of the most exciting clocks in the world. It is 600 years old, and it was invented by a monk of Glastonbury called Peter Lightfoot." He goes on to vividly describe the clock and what happened as it struck twelve.

I love discovering great writers, and I put HV Morton in this category. In addition to "In Search of England" he wrote about London, Spain, Italy, Rome, St. Paul (the person), and more. I look forward to reading all his books and am grateful for DaCapo Press (and my husband who bought this book) for making this discovery possible.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A reverence for a green and pleasant land, May 9, 2010

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: In Search Of England (Paperback)

"... there rose up in my mind the picture of a village street at dusk with a smell of wood smoke lying in the still air and, here and there, little red blinds shining in the dusk under the thatch. I remembered how the church bells ring at home, and how, at that time of year, the sun leaves a dull red bar low down in the west, and against it the elms grow blacker minute by minute. Then the bats start to flicker like little bits of burnt paper and you hear the slow jingle of a team coming home from the fields ... When you think like this, sitting alone in a foreign country, you know all there is to learn about heartache."
- H.V. Morton, homesick for England

First published in 1927, IN SEARCH OF ENGLAND bears testimony to Henry Morton's love affair with his homeland. For those of us that are citizens of elsewhere who are otherwise lovers of England and everything English, the volume joins Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island and the trilogy by Susan Allen Toth (My Love Affair with England, England as You Like It, and England for All Seasons) as absolutely required reading. All five books are declarations of love.

Having traveled all over England myself, as well as Wales and Scotland, during multiple visits, I could immediately relate to Morton's experiences at a number of unforgettable places: Salisbury, Winchester, St. Just-in-Roseland, Tintagel, Clovelly, Glastonbury, the Lake District, Hadrian's Wall, Durham, York, Lincoln, and Norwich. (I'm only perplexed that he apparently failed to visit so many others that I could name!)

The fact that Morton made his clockwise circuit of the kingdom eighty-three years ago is only evident by his reference to charabancs, the addition of water to his car's radiator, and an evening's entertainment with some isolated locals in the far reaches of Cornwall - listening to a broadcast from London's Savoy on the wireless. Otherwise, his experiences might just as well be contemporary.

At times, the author's prose approaches the sublime, as this entry from Shrewsbury:

"When I drew back the (hotel) bedroom's curtains, the moonlight printed itself green on the floor. It ran over the bed and lay slantwise upon a grim wardrobe that stood in the shadow of the ancient oak-beamed room. A proper Puckish night, with the green wash over hill and field, a night for elfin horns and mushroom rings and strange scurryings in thicket and copse. Somewhere near, a dog, unable to sleep and not knowing why - poor little lost wolf - whimpered restlessly."

California has been my home state for 58 years. Yet, even during my two lengthy residencies away - 12 months in Illinois and 15 months in Mississippi, I wouldn't have been able to write such an affectionate tribute to the Golden State as Morton delivers for his birthplace. The fact that I myself could perhaps pen one about Great Britain, and England in particular, is indicative of my devotion to the place. On my occasional returns to the island, my feeling on the aircraft's final approach to Heathrow or Gatwick is one of returning home. IN SEARCH OF ENGLAND is a reminder why my affection runs so deep. Sitting here at my computer in Glendale, CA, I miss that green and pleasant land so very, very much.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Search Of England, by H.V. Morton, November 2, 2010

By 

Joan Campion (Fountain Hill, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Search Of England (Paperback)

In the Lion's Mouth: Gisi Fleischmann & the Jewish Fight for SurvivalIsn't This Glorious!: The 15th, 19th, And 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiments at Gettysburg's Copse of Trees
Here is how travel writer H.V. Morton decribes an English market town, in the years between the two great world wars of the 20th century:
"Romsey, in the magic county of Hampshire, is the ideal small market town. Lord Palmerston, with hair turned green by years of rain, stands importantly on a plinth in the market place; a policeman in an easier attitude stands near him; there is a full cake shop opposite;...now and then a man and a cow cross the square..."
This small but vivid description from the book "In Search Of England" gives us just a "smatch" of Morton's colorful and evocative prose. Copyrighted in the 1930s and a best seller in its time, "In Search Of England" gives us something more: a look at an England that can no longer be visited, except through Morton's magical prose. What intervened was, of course, the Second World War, greater and more tragic than its predecessor. And its predecessor was so great that this book and his "In Search Of Scotland" are full of images and tales of people still trying to recover and rebuild.
So you can't read "In Search Of England" without wondering how much of what Morton wrote about here has been lost forever. He experienced that loss personally, and perhaps it explains why, late in life, he moved his family to South Africa. There, he seems to have built a close replica of the English home he had known.
But in a sense, in writing about lost England, he has helped immortalized it. I urge you to read this book, not only for the castles and cathedrals, many of which are still standing; but also for the lost ways of life and the people who led them: the craftsmen, the nobility, and even the pensioners of St. Cross. These aged gentlemen were supported in their old age--food, drink, shelter, clothing--through the benevolence of a churchman who had lived many centuries before, the medieval Bishop Henry of Blois. I hope their descendants are still there, but I dread checking out the present state of affairs.
If you love travel, history, the human heritage, you should read this book.