Despite all the long stories involved, I do really like large multigenerational sagas. So far, this God is an Englishman Series is among the best I have ever read. Stella, married at 18 to an impotent aristocrat who tries to imprison her in his life of shame and disgrace. Looking for leadership: Australia in the Howard years. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin (published 2000). 2001. p.295. ISBN 978-0-670-91237-7. Donald Horne: As I lay dying". The Weekend Australian Magazine. 22 September 2007 . Retrieved 14 June 2013.

As I mentioned before, the whole book takes place in the 1860s, so there are some fascinating explorations of the historical/economic phenomenon that were taking place at the time. For example, the NW region of Adam's business, Swann on Wheels, gets its start hauling for cotton mills in Lancashire, but when the U.S. Civil War breaks out, the whole region is affected and Adam puts the wagons to a clever and heartwarming use. Another discussion through the book is the adaptation of both the culture and the business world to the expanding reach of railroads. There is one character in particular who remembers the glory days of coaching and coaching inns and hates the incursion of the railroad. His story has a poignant intersection with the railroad that brought me to tears. For one thing, there is more to the story than the adventures of the individual family members. In addition to having eight children, Adam Swann has been all this time building his business, a hauling firm that has taken on the task of carrying the loads delivered around the country by the railroads from the train depots to their final destinations. (I like to think of them as English predecessors to modern companies liked Fed-Ex.) Giles, the family intellectual; and George, who succumbs to the charms of his German landlady but marries a pretty young Austrian who brings him an embryo motor car as her dowry. This was certainly my experience with To Serve Them All My Days and God Is an Englishman. I think most of us like honest and decent people to prevail, which - to varying degrees - seems to happen in his books, albeit with the slings and arrows which most poeple have to endure at times in their lives. I decided to sample Delderfield after finishing the Poldark series and having withdrawal symptoms. I wanted another family I could sink my teeth into and become completely involved in. This novel was set in the same time frame as Poldark, but actually covers completely different issues, so I stopped comparing the two and just settled down to enjoy this story as a thing apart. That worked out fine, because there is a lot to enjoy here.

They arrived at Adam's home and Henrietta was given into the care of his Aunt Charlotte. Adam spent time with his father. Sam had found out where Henrietta was and came to collect her. She refused to go. Adam took Sam aside and told him what he had seen in regard to the boy. Sam agreed to leave Henrietta with Adam and stated that he would disinherit her. Adam asked Henrietta to marry him. Henrietta agreed to the marriage and Adam told her what he had seen Sam do. Henrietta wasn't at all surprised that her father would do such a thing. I found this author’s female characters to be so well written.....the author seemed to have an understanding of, and an empathy for the female condition.

a b c d Huxley, John; Selinger-Morris, Samantha (9 September 2005). "Forever misquoted, Donald Horne dies". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 12 June 2013. The Swann family saga is only one of several important English family sagas written by Delderfield, including The Horseman Riding By and To Serve Them All Our Days, both of which became popular BBC mini-series.Worm's Eye View - BFI Filmography". filmography.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020.

If you type into a search engine, “God is a . . .” near the top is “Englishman” (just after “astronaut”—go figure!). We quote this phrase all the time in England. It’s from a well-known book by R.F. Delderfield. Suffice it to say that my country’s relationship with God has a long and complicated history. Nowhere is this more evident than in the words of the hymn “Jerusalem.” Considered one of our most patriotic songs, the hymn also has the dubious honor of being the only one where every line can be answered in the negative: God Is an Englishman. Angus and Robertson in association with Penguin Books. 1969. p.281. ISBN 978-0-207-95363-7. Adam Swann is a very interesting and smart character and his aims to build his own place in the world are a kind of microcosm of how industry and entrepreneurism changed the world in the mid-1800s. His feisty wife, Henrietta, adds another dimension to both this man and the story, and Delderfield peoples the novel with a supporting cast that feels real and substantial. While there are sections in which the building of Swann-on-Wheels, Adam’s business, can become a little laborious, the understanding of it is essential to understanding the characters and their lives. The Saturday Paper announces new essay prize". Books+Publishing. 2 August 2016 . Retrieved 20 April 2021.

The reading public, always a confederation of wildly dif ferent tribes of people with exceedingly different tastes in books, was never so frag mented as it is today. One man's memorable and signifi cant novel is another's abomi nation. Another man's thor oughly enjoyable novel is an other's mess of commercial pottage. Which brings us to the news that R. F. Delderfield's new novel, “God Is an English man,” is now published. He also worked on writing, arts and citizenship boards and was an executive member of the Australian Constitutional Commission. [2] He was Chairman of the Australia Council from 1985-1990. Several of Delderfield's historical novels and series involve young men who return from war and take up careers in peacetime that allow the author to delve deeply into social history from the Edwardian era to the early 1960s. It's not a matter of years, but of experience, don't you see? What are our casualties to date? Not far short of three million, I'd say, and a third of them dead at eighteen-plus. No one who hasn't been out can imagine what it's like. Mentally a man like you must have aged about a year every month, and that makes you immeasurably senior to theorists like me, and faithful old buffers like Cordwainer, Acton and Gibbs.

Horne, Donald; Footscray Institute of Technology (1985). How to be an Intellectual (Speech). Footscray, Victoria: Footscray Institute of Technology. ISBN 978-0-908533-93-0. And we get the love lives of all of the other older children as well. I find the most interesting to be those of Stella, the oldest daughter, and Giles, the third son.

Belongs to Series

Sam Rawlinson had grown into a position of wealth and owned of a mill. His wife had died giving birth to Henrietta and he valued her as a possession to be used to gain more wealth. Henrietta was 18 and refused to be forced into a marriage in exchange for land. The striking mill workers had caused a riot and set the mill on fire. Henrietta used the distraction as an opportunity to run away from home. A storm came up and her horse threw her and ran off. She found a hut outside of town and used it to get out of the rain. it demanded imaginative investments, well-guarded channels of communication and above all, a trained work force that was aware, every hour of the day, on which side its bread was buttered” The next two years brought the Swann's name notoriety through employee activities. Hamlet Ratcliff was informed that his job was in jeopardy. Hamlet set about catching a circus lion that had gotten loose while being transported by a different company whose driver was drunk. His catching the lion increased the popularity of the line in his area and kept him from being replaced. The two-volume work The Avenue, which follows the residents of a middle-class suburban road over a few decades, begins shortly after the end of World War I with the return of one resident, who finds that his wife has died in the Spanish flu epidemic and left him with several children to care for. Whilst not quite up to the standard of To Serve Them All My Days, this is still well worth reading if you enjoy chunky, good quality period fiction.