England My England: Anglophilia Explained

This isn t really a book, it s like a long monologue live in a theatre by a comedian The point is supposedly why Americans and to a greater degree, Canadians and Australians are in love with the idea of England It doesn t do that Oh the author advances some white privilege theories and the idea that Americans would really like to have a class structure rather than pretending everyone s equal But he doesn t try hard enough because what he really wants to do is ramble about growing up reading Eni [...]

Let s begin by explaining what this book is not It s not D.H Lawrence s 1915 collection of short stories, England, My England Nor is it the Scottish A.G Macdonnell s 1933 classic satire of England called England, Their England Nor is it George Orwell s 1941 essay, England Your England, the Socialist turned conservative s propaganda effort to bolster the war effort during the Blitz all the while decrying modernity.Instead, it s a short less than 50 minutes in the Audible format short exposition o [...]

When I was in college, I had to write an essay on A Room With A View My professor, quite rightly, gave me a poor grade because it was admittedly all over the place I remember he basically told me that not every thought in your head needs to be written down Now I can say this, not every thought you have needs to be self published on Oh how I wish this author had taken a class with professor Shea If this is meant to be amusing it fails astoundingly, although you can see where he is trying too hard [...]

What would have made England My England better The author of this piece did not make it clear what the work is supposed to be Was it a parody of scholastic works If so, it missed the mark completely Was it actually supposed to be an analysis of American based Anglophilia If so, it missed the mark completely Quite frankly, it was a thinly veiled excuse to insult anyone that doesn t fit the author s narrow view of a proper Anglophile.What could Mark Dery have done to make this a enjoyable book fo [...]

Not sure how I ended up with this in my Audible library, but it s snobbish, pretentious, and irritating I hope I didn t pay money for it Sometimes I get books for free or on a really good deal With luck, this was one of those Even if it was free, it was a waste of my time.

This seemed to be a bit schizophrenic, one part personal anecdotes and other psuedo scholarly discussion I wish the author would have made a better mix of these two because they seemed to make the story very disjointed and hard to follow.I admit to being an Anglophile so I looked forward to reading about why so many Americans are all a flutter over anything British I was taken aback by the tone of his discussion and felt like he was dressing Anglophiles as a group down While I do agree that most [...]

I don t really feel like much was explained, here There was perhaps a vague impression that Anglophilia is a sort of white racial identity, or nostalgia for a clearer class structure, but a lot of it really focused on some books the author had as a kid, that turned out to be pretty English in character, and his experience growing up in the 1970s sprinkled with some Britishisms here and there I guess there was a point in there, and it WAS very short, so at least it didn t waste my time overmuch.

He says a lot in a very short book, penetrating to cultural currents and penetrating insights that prevail beyond his initial topic I especially liked his take on the influence that the books of our childhood have on us in later life

I picked this up on Audible, noting the reference to Downton Abbey and the promise of explaining Anglophilia.Wow I got totally lost in all the verbiage I honestly can t relay one point that was made they were all lost to me in the adjectives and winding descriptions Just not my style.

This was free, I hope Give us that veil of illusions, Anglophiles seem to be saying Better that fairytale feudalism of Kate and William than the bright smiling rapacity of Mitt Romney and the incomparable vulgarity of Donald Trump essay gains a star for entertaining statement of obvious Isn t community what so many recent Brit based myths are really selling Whether it s the race based tribalism of Lord of the Rings essay loses star for addressing something the author obviously knows nothing abou [...]

England My England centres on an Anglo Proustian evocation of the writer s exposure to a kind of Englishness in the shape of The Children s Wonder Book of Colour, an encyclopaedia aimed at the kids of middle class parents that came out after the War It seems to have been a strangely Arthur Ransome esque potpourri Dery compares it to his beloved Wunderkammerer of mildly racist colonialist propaganda, Boy s Own Paper stories, ornithology, flower pressing and other suitable interests for the gentee [...]

In this short but rambling essay on anglophilia, Dery attempts to explain why so many Americans living in this great land of opportunity are obsessed with life upon the windswept rock of England While he takes a few looks at society at large for examples of people who wish to be fabulously British, the focus is on his own story Is growing up on English literature what makes us long for this tiny country that somehow remains a world power Maybe it s separation anxiety, and we re still crying out [...]

A very short, easy to read theory on why some Americans love the Brits.Being neither American nor British I m Aussie I guess this book should ve held little interest for me but I am a foreigner who loves me a good bit o Britain so I thought I d give it a whirl Note I m such an Anglophile I fled my sunburnt homeland as soon as I was legal, and spent the best part of the next decade in my adopted home of not so sunny Somerset In other words, there was actually than a bit of interest on my part in [...]

Although this is fairly short and did seem to quote other people just as often as giving the author s own perspective, it did make me think about my own anglophilia than I usually do However since this is based on a US mindset and of American anglophiles I couldn t quite connect with it all My favourite point Mark Dery made was the wonder of if anglophilia is just type of separation anxiety from the motherland, which somewhat makes sense for the USA, as Canada still has some ties to England as [...]

2.5 starsThis was an interesting selection for one of Audible s free Valentine s day offerings, since rather than romantic love it discusses the love of a culture As an anglophile myself, I expected to enjoy this, but it stayed a bit too surface level, though I guess that s to be expected from a Kindle Short.

I had hopes that this essay would lean a little toward the academic It was a very accessible and short look at our fascination with the England that exists in our imaginations Reading this on a rainy day with a cup of tea was a lovely few minutes of my day.

Utterly dull beyond all words The writer could not have used a verbose way of attempting to get his point across if he had just written words out on a page Would not even finish it Utterly horrible.

I didn t get it I probably should have known that even though this was free, it would be a waste of time when I had to google Anglophile Basically this was just an essay about why the author is obsessed with England Again, it was free and short.

This was a rambling mess of an audiobook I still don t quite know what the point of it was, but it didn t explain Anglophilia to me Maybe if I read the actual essay, I could have followed it Unfortunately, I couldn t even finish it.

Well that was a ho hum 38 minutes of my life The promise of our love of Downton Abbey explored just didn t happen and in the end, it was a lot of rambling about nothing Watch Downton, love the Queen and ignore the book.

I picked this up free from Audible, and I now wish I had my 45 minutes back What pointless drivel He just rambled on and on and on about absolutely nothing.

As an Australian, I am comfortable and feel at home with English culture than American culture The author explored the English with curiosity, whereas I found the subject nostalgic

Didn t listen with complete attention

was a freebie from audible, it was okay but glad I didn t pay for it

Not sure that it says much of anything.

A short, but somewhat interesting comparison of the idealized England of US imagination to the real England.

Listened to the audiobook while exercising Maybe not the most exciting book, but it did have some interesting points about why Americans like England so much.

I was expecting Anglophilia Explained I didn t get it What I did get out of it was one man s explanation of his childhood anglophilia not really interesting at all.

I kind of lost interest halfway through, but it s not the book s fault It s well written, I m just not as interested about anglophilia as I originally thought I was.

Cute Quick Funny.