God Is an Englishman (The Swann Family Saga: Volume 1)

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National Living Treasures – Current List, Deceased, Formerly Listed, National Trust of Australia (NSW), 22 August 2014 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. After returning from the wars in the Crimea and India, Adam Swann decided to leave the army and started his own business - "Swann-on-Wheels". The company's name was suggested by Henrietta Rawlinson, daughter of a local mill owner, who will become his beloved wife.

Over the next three years, Adam and Henrietta were married. Their first child was born 18 months later. It was a girl Adam named Stella after a girl he found in a well during his military days. Stella's eyes reminded him of the stars in the sky as they removed her body from the well.This is a fascinating and outstanding novel about exciting times in economic and social development throughout Victorian England. The next novels in the series - - Theirs Was the Kingdom (Swann Family Saga) and Give Us This Day (God Is an Englishman) - - bring the younger Swanns into the business and they face the next challenges as the face of road freight transport changes from horse drawn to motorised delivery. Like Cromwell, Hill was both a Puritan and a radical. He was brought up as a northern Methodist, cycling twice every Sunday to the imposing Centenary Chapel, built in 1840 to commemorate the first hundred years of Methodism in York. Afterwards, he would discuss the day's sermons with his mother. And although he would cease being a Christian as an undergraduate at Oxford University, Hill retained all the moral seriousness, piety, egalitarianism and intellectual inquisitiveness bestowed by his Dissenting inheritance. The radical Protestant conviction that demanded that spiritual equality in the eyes of God be met with a greater social equality here on earth never failed to inform his history writing.

Mr. Delderfield is English, talented, immensely industrious. No living novelist currently at work is so staunch and blithe a representative of an out moded style of writing fiction. A cheerful anachronism in the world of letters, Mr. Delder field writes with vigor, unceas ing narrative drive and a high degree of craftsmanship. At his best he may remind one of Troilope, at his worst of Hugh Walpole. Uneven, sometimes unconvincing, Mr. Delderfield is usually competent, usually entertaining and sometimes boring. He is a storyteller, which is no small thing to be. But he is not a novelist who can impose his vision of life upon his readers, who can cre ate characters so individual or so universal that they linger in the memory; whose own use of words and whose personality add an extra dimension to his work. However, the conversation dynamic changed when we talked about the Lord, his Word, and his work in our lives. Suddenly, we had so much to talk about. There was warmth in our conversation as we recognized each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. We were strangers from an earthly standpoint. But because of Christ, we were family. Our love for Jesus outpaced and will outlive our love for our homelands.Horne, Donald; Horne, Myfanwy (2007). Dying: a memoir. Ringwood, Victoria: Viking. p.265. ISBN 978-0-670-07102-9.

Essentially, this was really well done historical fiction. I cared about the characters, and I was not bored by historical details (mostly). At some points I wondered where it was going - there’s not much predictability in the sudden turns a man’s life can take - but overall there was momentum and motion and purpose, and satisfying change in the characters.A Horseman Riding By (published in the United States as two novels, Long Summer Day and Post of Honor) Then there is the prose – its delicious precision, knowing understatement and witty asides. Above all, there is Hill's winning conviction that you cannot begin to appreciate Britain's island story or the passage of the "Cromwellian spirit" from the battle of Naseby to the Beveridge report without knowing "Old Nol" himself. In his generosity, wisdom and tangible feel for the significance of the 17th century, Christopher Hill stands as the finest of guides to the man of the times.

The great museum: the re-presentation of history. Leichhardt, New South Wales: Pluto Press. 1984. ISBN 978-0-86104-788-8. I'll admit it. Despite my better judgement, I'm hooked on the series and find the characters engaging. From a more dispassionate perspective, the book is capitalist propaganda. It's propaganda in an interesting way-- it makes points about the rise of business in England in the 19th century, as well as the role of business in political liberalism. But nevertheless, it's propaganda. It's also a weaker book for the fact that tragedy doesn't strike the family, except as a means towards greater accomplishment. I'm curious to see if the third book in the series introduces more realistic drama. Theirs was the Kingdom is book II in what is commonly called the "God is an Englishmen" trilogy. Book I is the story of a guy who quits the army to seek his fortune and start a family at the dawn of the industrial revolution of Victorian England. Book II is the continuation of him and his large family, with each child now spawning a subthread. God is an Englishman is historical fiction written in the 1970s about the Victorian era. I’ve always had a soft spot for this era, and only turned to historical fiction once I grew tired of re-reading my favorite classics of the period. Finally, I've found something that satisfies what I’ve been searching for ever since, something that goes beyond an individual or two who happen to be living in a Victorian setting.

Rating

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. From master author R. F. Delderfield, the first in the beloved classic God Is an Englishman series.The first novel in the epic God Is an Englishman series, this book is a stirring saga of England in the 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution takes hold, forever changing the landscape of England and her people.