Examine English Journey Produced By J.B. Priestley Presented In Ebook

Edition
With a comtemporary perspective from Stuart Maconie

Featuring an exploration of the books social, political and literary legacy.

With contributions from Nina Bawden, Tom Priestley, Roy Hattersley contributions from Dame Margaret Drabble, Alan Plater, William Woodruff, Dame Beryl Bainbridge and Doctor John Baxendale.


In, JB Priestley published an account of his journey through England from Southampton to the Black Country, to the North East and Newcastle, to Norwich and home.
In capturing and describing an English landscape and people hitherto unseen in literature of its kind, he influenced the thinking and attitudes of an entire generation and helped formulate a public consensus for change that led to the formation of the welfare state.

Prophetic, profound, humorous and as relevant today as it wasyears ago, English Journey expresses Priestleys deep love of his native country and teaches us much about the human condition and the nature of Englishness.
A book that anyone interested in England should read,
This special edition of one of Priestleys most enduring and widelyread works comes with a first word from Nina Bawden, forewords by Tom Priestley and Roy Hattersley an exploration of the books social, political and literary legacy and personal contributions from Dame Margaret Drabble, Alan Plater, William Woodruff, Dame Beryl Bainbridge and Doctor John Baxendale.


The fully restored originaltext A timely text with so much ofs history feeling all too current.
There was universal agreement about the excellence of the writing and the evocation of time and place.
He used language very effectively a writer at the height of his powers, Sometimes, the text was genuinely moving,

However, there was much disagreement about the independence of the view and the accuracy of rendition.
One quoted a comment that this was “a succession of moods rather than a succession of places.
” Again, we could all agree that this was not an unbiased coverage of all Britain omitting London and its environs his insight into industrial development is uneven.
Not everyone felt that this was necessarily a fault, Perhaps the North, in particular, was a far country of which the more affluent South, where policy was made, was not wholly aware.


He was at his best when he was being descriptive, analytical, or anecdotal, at his worst when he was being judgemental, patronising or pushing a predevised agenda.
The book is a good, if biased, historic record, and important in developing social concern for problems of unemployment and industrial squalor.
There are some real flashes of insight, both into people and into the way some places have developed.
Overall it was a fascinating book of abiding interest,

In his summary, To the End, Priestley speaks of three Englands, Old England is defined by the cathedrals and minsters, the manor houses and inns, and quaint highways and byways.

Nineteenth Century England is formed from coal, iron, steel, cotton, wool and railways, He suggests that Merrie England” cannot be improved upon, at least with rose tinted spectacles, However, he does point out that there was a substantial exodus to the industrial, revolutionary cities in the nineteenth century.
Vote with your feet, as they say,

His third England was more universal, possibly born in America, of cinemas and Woolworths, of the city bypass and semidetached bungalow, and so on.
As he points out perceptively elsewhere in the book, the coming of improved transport and communications may signal the death of individual and regional character.
When talking of East Durham, he talks of its strange isolation, Nobody goes to East Durham, and by implication, noone who lives there can afford to leave.
As elsewhere in the book he talks of the harsh northern environment either bringing its inhabitants to despair, or blunting their senses and clouding the mind.
This is certainly harsh, and perhaps overstated, As he observes, regional theatres flourish in the most unlikely settings, and there are merits in the enterprise and ingenuity of the sons of the industrial revolution that is not always echoed in the gentrified classes to the south of Sheffield.


Speaking of East Durham, rarely can a book have been so well illustrated by its accompanying photographs the Bill Brandt picture of the brick house sheltering under the coal slag heap with the heavy machinery of the pulley system perched on its top is magnificent and such photographs can be as influential as the text.
Although written eighty years ago, this at least was familiar from my own childhood, when part of Lanarkshire was dominated by these spoils from deep mining.
However, not everyone had the same edition, and some were poorly illustrated by modern equivalents, If you buy this book, go for the Folio Society edition of, and check the photographs before you buy!

However, our discussion became less centred on the observation, and more on the causes of what was observed, in a historical and industrial or business context.
Of course, English Journey is in itself an influential work and a precursor of the Mass Observation Project that followed, which we read about earlier in “Nella Lasts War”.
Although titled an English Journey, many pointed out that it was incomplete, Priestley himself acknowledged that he had not completed the task, and had failed to meet his original intentions to be more comprehensive.
Rather, than three Englands, a majority though that this was really about two Englands, and that Priestley betrayed his left wing sympathies in suggesting that the industrial north had been betrayed by the allegedly by some, not all unproductive, parasitic south of bankers and other financial contributors to the British economy.
To what extent was the plight of the North the fault of poor management by its own community, to what extent due to southern exploitation Was it due primarily to the location of the great natural resource of coal, which spawned the associated industries Was it due to the inventiveness of the northern mind, which we considered earlier in “The Lunar Men”, unallied to business control.
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This is an extract from a review at sitelink wordpress. com/. Our reviews are also to be found at sitelink blogspot. com/



Because Priestley was such a humane, curious, observant man, qualities that played an important role in his success with novels, plays, and essays, he falls naturally into the role of travel writer.
This book is probably less useful as a guide to the places Priestley visited far too much has changed but it should prove invaluable for better appreciating those places and the people that occupy them.
It's certainly an important snapshot of a workaday Britain before World War II and a revealing chronicle of the toll that earlier wars and rampant industrialism exacted on Britain's people and landscape.
Not that Priestley continually laments these things, They are reported as simple observations, information that feeds his inquisitiveness and sparks his empathy, The voice is pure Priestley: calm and witty, but generously peppered with his irrepressible sarcasm and occasional flashes of disgust.
During his journey, Priestley does what all travel writers should do he invites experience, He throws himself into the activities of the people he meets and the places he visits.
This is what travel is about, immersing oneself in an unfamiliar situation, By all means, find a current guide to plan your trip across Britain, but read this one to nourish your imagination and train your traveler's eye.
A wonderful nonfiction book, Priestley's journey around England in the autumn of, He gets under the skin of each places he visits showing up the desperate plight of the British working man in the north.
This is not however a grim book there is also much humour, we not only get a taste of the real England of the early's but we also learn more about the English Journey's irascible author.
J. B. Priestleys dating profile:

Likes: The Cotswolds, Bradford, Hull, Lincoln, Norwich, repertory theatre, motorcoaches, smoking a pipe.


Dislikes: Lancashire not as good as Yorkshire, the north east, the midlands “a dustbin fire”, Nottinghams Goose Fair “sordid”, the suburbs, communists, capitalists, the Irish, the cinema.


WLTM: Decent, respectable, socialist English lady who doesnt wear too much make up, cleans her house regularly, doesnt have a Geordie accent “ugly”, isnt influenced by Hollywood starlets.
Fascinating personal insights into the state of the postindustrial north as he travels there in, Priestley talks of social ideas but his sketches of the people he meets are perhaps the most

interesting.
Very sad in places but very human, A very inspiring book.
Priestley is quite straightforward and honest about the wrongs he sees in his beloved England.

He can be lyrical about Hull or Lincoln but more often he is sadly pessimistic and angry about unemployment and the slump in shipbuilding, cotton and wool trade and the awfully ugly towns in the north.

It is also a severe attack on the City of London or rather the government and the very wellto do who have made their money over the backs of the working class.

Although at times it is clear that his mood of the day colours his vision somewhat and his outbursts are at times repetitive the book is still very readable although it was written in.

I feel it is a pity that I let it rest in my bookcase unread since.
I've had this book on my shelves for quite a while and I finally got around to reading it whilst on holiday earlier this year.
What a fascinating insight into times that are really not so terribly long ago but yet so very different from my own personal experiences.
I've always loved Priestley for his attention to detail, his very apt interpretation of what he sees and hears.
I've always loved Priestley for his ability to use so few words to convey so much.
A big book, an important book, A book I was sure I was going to find enjoyable, but then it side twisted me.
I was sure I was going to be guided through England of the depression by a wise and avuncular uncle.
Someone who would point out all I needed to know and who would take a kindly if rather forbidding attitude towards things he didn't quite approve of.

I've read An Inspectors Calls and The Good Companions so I thought I had some idea of my man.
I was only partly right, The Priestley revealed in this "rambling but truthful account", is not quite as nice as you would think.
He'd very likely cause the saucers to rattle at a modern gathering of the socially aware and concerned.
In fact, I think he would be a little upset if he didn't,
He paints a picture of three Englands, the first of long historic tradition with everyone in their place from the castle and cathedral down to the cottage and the gate.
The second is the industrial mess we made of so much of England for profit in the nineteenth century and have left the problem of what to do with the unwanted workers, the wastelands and the rusting factories.
The third is the modern world that he credits to American influence and popular culture,
Eighty years on it is all still there, and at a time of depression, it doesn't seem that much has changed.
Wealth rather than breeding determines who plays the squire and who the cottager, but the ancient regime remains.
Industry has largely gone but its wastelands are easy to find, Collieries have been converted into supermarkets at a vast rate and chemical plants have become football stadia.
The main residue though is the worker, Often third generation unemployed, they have become a soft cottoned jogging suited subclass, For decades we, as a country, made sure they remained so uneducated that they would accept the monotonous rottenness, often dangerous too, of jobs in mills, foundries and pits.
Now we have apparently created a group who are immune and inured against learning as a way out.
The third England has become dominant, Trafford, Gateshead, Blue Water, Meadowhall are the temples, Talent shows on commercial television, mimicked by talent shows on our national broadcaster, dominate interest in culture.

So much for the wise observer, He saw, and was able to tell what was important from what isn't, and this is what separates him from most other "beat of the nation" travelogues.
He knows his stuff. What of the more difficult to like Priestley, Well, get him on Geordies or Liverpool Irish and I think you'll find views not only intolerant but on the wrong side of offensive.

Oh, and for you English examiners who continue to set questions about how An Inspector Calls reveals Priestley's socialism: please read what the man himself had to say on the subject.
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