English Journey

Travel writing is one of the best forms of literature, but as Paul Theroux points out, one that can be done badly if the author is not careful. English Journey has not been done badly and 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.