Bright Young Things discussion

In Search Of London takes a look at this very big city, with a loooong history, so there is a lot to discuss. I think this book is every bit as interesting as In Search Of England, by H.V. Morton, who knows London. His journalist nose explores many different areas and historic sites and events, and discusses some of the great people who shaped history. HVM unearths some quirky aspects of history while in conversation with interesting everyday Londoners.
I'd be interested to know if some of the places are still as HVM describes in 1950-51.

Well done for setting up this thread Greg.

I am very keen to read this book however am not sure exactly when that will be as I have a lot of other books competing for my reading time.

Like you, I really enjoyed reading In Search Of England and find H.V. Morton's style pleasing and beguiling.

I was interested to note here on the HV Morton wikipedia page that In Search Of London was published on 24 May 1951, some 44 years after In Search Of England and was the sixth volume of the "In Search of…" series. I will be interested to see the extent to which his style might have changed in the intervening years. It also means that the England he describes in 1927 in In Search Of England would be a very different place to the London of the early 1950s, although I recognise a lot of the book is looking at London's history, and how London's daily life is rooted in a past that is closer and more familiar than many Londoners might realise.



Coincidentally, as I was ordering my copy of In Search Of London by H.V. Morton, I got a recommendation for English Journey by J.B. Priestley - as you may have noticed I am becoming quite intrigued by J.B. Priestley. It appears he may have been ploughing a similar furrow to our man H.V. Morton for this particular book..

In 1934, J.B. Priestley described 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. Insightful, profound, humorous and moving, "English Journey" captures J.B. Priestley's deep love of his native country and tells us so much about the human condition and the nature of Englishness.

The fully illustrated edition published in 2012 by Great Northern Books contains a contemporary perspective from Stuart Maconie, an introduction by Priestley's son, Tom, and a perceptive contributuion from Lee Hanson, editor of the Rediscovering Priestley series for Great Northern Books.

There's a copy in my library. Joy is unconfined!

Nigeyb wrote: "

Well done for setting up this thread Greg.

I am very keen to read this book however am not sure exactly when that will be as I have a lot of other books competing for my reading time.

Like you,..."

Nigeyb, I feel your pain. We're all drowning here. Too many books!
My copy of In Search of London is a 1951 edition. I assume the new edition with that iconic bus on the cover is the same book without being re-edited.
I haven't read any J.B. Priestly, but this might be a good place to start.

Considering the difference between years when published with In Search of England and In Search of London, they are very much the H.V.M style although the places and era are different.

I'm 30 pages into The Nights of London. This was first published on November 11th 1926. My fifth edition copy was published 1932. Still in good nick. On the title page is stamped in blue 'The Burma News Agency, 125, Scott Market, Rangoon'. Rangoon 1932. Mmmm. This copy could well have been through the Japanese occupation and then eventually found its way to a second hand bookshop in NSW Australia.

The style and quality of The Nights of London are consistent with everything I've read by HVM.

Greg wrote: "My copy of In Search of London is a 1951 edition. I assume the new edition with that iconic bus on the cover is the same book without being re-edited."

You assume right Greg. I don't think anyone would mess with the hallowed H.V. Morton text.

Although I posted the image with the London bus, I think my copy is going to look like this...

Greg, I apologise for the slight digression, however I now have, in my hands, a copy of English Journey by J.B. Priestley.

As I mention above, it was published in 1934, and J.B. Priestley describes a journey through England from Southampton to the Black Country, to the North East and Newcastle, to Norwich and home.

Here's the thing, this edition, with the original text, is illustrated with over 80 modern and archive photos. It's a really beautiful thing and the sort of loving treatment that some of H.V. Morton's work would really benefit from too.

Not only that, the praise lavished on it, is very fulsome...

The finest book ever written about England and the English

Priestley never wrote better

A masterpiece

It does look like another great travel book from our era.

The introduction by the always readable and interesting Stuart Maconie made me chuckle too...

If, as a writer, J.B. Priestley had just been brilliant, humane, elegant, virile, intelligent, witty and technically dazzling, he'd be arguably considered the pre-eminent British literary talent of his age. Sadly from him though, he also laboured beneath the crushing burden of being accessible, engaging, crystal clear and enormously popular. The mandarins of the metropolitan elite like their 'provincial' voices to stay just that if possible, or at least to have the decency to be faintly troubled and attractively doomed, like say D.H. Lawrence or John Lennon, rather than rich, successful, boundlessly gifted and ordered like J.B. Priestley or Paul McCartney. The riches and success must have been some consolation.

Classic stuff eh?

Thanks Nigeyb. Top drawer. Going by that recommendation J B Priestley's English Journey is a must find.

No apologies necessary, digressions lead to new discoveries.

By chance, looking up the meaning of the phrase 'Top drawer', which is frightfully English, I found reference to Horace Annesley Vachell who well and truly belongs in BYTs period. He wrote The Hill: A Romance of Friendship and This was England. The review of the book sounds very interesting.

^ I've just started reading English Journey by J.B. Priestley - I'll let you know how it goes.

I am still waiting for my copy of In Search Of London - I will read it too.

My copy of In Search Of London has arrived. I am not sure when I'll get to read it however I am keen.

Watch this space.

My copy looks like this...



A very pleasing London image.

Nigeyb wrote: "I've just started reading English Journey by J.B. Priestley - I'll let you know how it goes."

I finished English Journey by J.B. Priestley a couple of days ago. English Journey makes a fascinating companion piece to "In Search Of England" by H.V. Morton, which was published a few years earlier, and was another enormously successful English travelogue, however one that provides a far more romantic version of England, an England untroubled by poverty and the depression. Like H.V. Morton's book, "English Journey" has never been out of print.

"English Journey" is subtitled...

"English journey being a rambling but truthful account of what one man saw and heard and felt and thought during a journey through England during the autumn of the year 1933 by J.B. Priestley."

...which sums it up very succinctly.

In 1934, J.B. Priestley published this account of a journey through England from Southampton to the Black Country, to the North East and Newcastle, to Norwich and then back to his home in Highgate, London. His account is very personal and idiosyncratic, and in it he muses on how towns and regions have changed, their history, amusing pen pictures of those he encounters, and all of this is enhanced by a large side order of realism and hard-nosed opinion. The book was a best seller when it was published and apparently had an influence on public attitudes to poverty and welfare, and the eventual formation of the welfare state.

"English Journey" is a fascinating account, and the edition I read, published by Great Northern Books, is also illustrated with over 80 modern and archive photos. It's a really beautiful book and one I heartily recommend.

I shall be reading more of J.B. Priestley's work.

And whilst we're on the subject of London, I have a DVD called "London: the Modern Babylon" written and directed by Julien Temple....




It's 127 mins long - I have about 45 minutes left to watch. It's absolutely superb.

A kaleidoscopic trawl through the last 120 or so years of London history - two world wars, youth cults, social upheaval, immigration, music, politics and much more - it's all in there. Wonderful. I'll add another post when I finally finish it.

Greg wrote this in the May non-fiction nominations open thread and I thought it was as good a reason as any to revive this thread.....

Greg wrote: "A while ago I set up a Hot Read for In Search Of London by H.V. Morton. As a prompt/urge/exhort/entreat I nominate this book for a group read."

^ Bravo Greg. I still have this on my shelf waiting the right moment.

In Search Of England was a delight