Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England (original 2009; edition 2010)

by Stuart Maconie

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201	13	134,875	(3.68)	22
Everyone talks about 'Middle England'. Sometimes they mean something bad, like a lynch mob of Daily Mail readers, and sometimes they mean something good, like a pint of ale in a sleepy Cotswold village in summer twilight. But just where and what is Middle England? Stuart Maconie didn't know either, so he packed his Thermos and sandwiches and set off to find out...Is Middle England about tradition and decency or closed minds and bigotry? Is it maypoles and evensong, or flooded market towns and binge drinkers in the park? And is Slough really as bad as Ricky Gervais and John Betjeman make out? From Shakespeare to JK Rowling, Vaughan Williams to Craig David, William Morris to B&Q, Stuart Maconie leads the expedition, with plenty of stop-offs for tea and scones, to discover the truth.… (more)

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Member:	PensiveCat
Title:	Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England
Authors:	Stuart Maconie
Info:	Ebury Press (2010), Paperback, 346 pages
Collections:	British Library, I Read This, Your library
Rating:
Tags:	England, Read

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Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England by Stuart Maconie (2009)

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Showing 1-5 of 13 (next | show all)

Had a laugh. But there wasn't enough of a structure so it all bumbled on rather and I had to skip a lot of the last chapters to get to the end. (

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Ma_Washigeri | Jan 23, 2021 |

I had high hopes for this one, but had to skip through a lot of the chapters as the author seemed to go on endlessly. I was not familiar with many of the names and places he mentions, since I am not British. I liked the chapters about music and literature. Definitely not Bill Bryson. (

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LadyoftheLodge | Dec 20, 2020 |

Funny, clever and interesting. This book added to my list of places I want to visit. (

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CarolKub | Oct 13, 2019 |

Had a laugh. But there wasn't enough of a structure so it all bumbled on rather and I had to skip a lot of the last chapters to get to the end. (

)

Ma_Washigeri | May 27, 2018 |

Mildly amusing,more raise a smile than laugh out loud.Chose it because I had read [b:Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North|765768|Pies and Prejudice In Search of the North|Stuart Maconie|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178158984s/765768.jpg|751839] and had really liked that but in comparision this was disappointing.As for the claim that he is the english Bill Bryson I don't think so (

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KarenDuff | Jun 1, 2016 |

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Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2009

People/Characters

Important places

Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, UK

Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

'The land of embarrassment and breakfast.' - Julian Barnes

Dedication

For The English Roses

First words

Imagine that you are a very particular kind of Englishman or woman.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Wilson, Tony

Original language

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Canonical LCC

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Wikipedia in English (1)

Stuart Maconie

▾Book descriptions

Everyone talks about 'Middle England'. Sometimes they mean something bad, like a lynch mob of Daily Mail readers, and sometimes they mean something good, like a pint of ale in a sleepy Cotswold village in summer twilight. But just where and what is Middle England? Stuart Maconie didn't know either, so he packed his Thermos and sandwiches and set off to find out...Is Middle England about tradition and decency or closed minds and bigotry? Is it maypoles and evensong, or flooded market towns and binge drinkers in the park? And is Slough really as bad as Ricky Gervais and John Betjeman make out? From Shakespeare to JK Rowling, Vaughan Williams to Craig David, William Morris to B&Q, Stuart Maconie leads the expedition, with plenty of stop-offs for tea and scones, to discover the truth.

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