An enjoyable book that went on too long, or at least could have been edited by about 100 pages or so. Still, the telling of Squire Craddock’s story from WW1 to the start of the Second World War captures the flavor of the times. Tired a bit of the wife and children who don’t share his value for the land and what he accomplished in keeping his holdings and his people together.

After a reasonable time, I’ll tackle the final book of the trilogy, although to be honest, my interest is flagging somewhat. ( )

This book takes a look at the years of the Great War to the Second War. It is dense and with the previous book and perhaps as a show of the times in which it was written, Delderfield takes on a long journey.

The faults of the first book, changing speakers in one paragraph of dialogue are here in the second. Changing points of view, and often undimensional characters as well. We see the world mostly through the eyes of the Squire, Paul Craddock, but the man seems to walk around in a stupor. He is unconnected to all his children and does not really seem to care about any. He cares more about farm prices then about anything else.

Perhaps this is indicative of being British. His children are an afterthought, and they are an afterthought of the writer as well. A dynasty is here and it is ignored. We of course only see the world through our own eyes, but it would be nice to have tried to show how another generation does not see the world change so much as they see a place to participate.

It is age that shows us that things have changed, and the lead character ends this book shortly after sixty. That he leads a bucolic life might allow us to believe that the entire roaring twenties did not take place. Since we go from the Armistice to the Crash in a blink of an eye.

And then luckily for our hero, he is tipped off that Herr Hitler is more than a little foolish man. It seems like a terrible plot device to have our hero be the only one ready for the Second big show. Since of course the author knows it is coming. It would seem much nicer if he was caught up as all his tenants and friends were.

In all, we get a glimpse of some of the world of Geroge V. Not much. There is a great deal of thought about sex and how good one looks, and can one still have sex when you are on the down side of the time line. Far too much repetition here, and in other thoughts that pad the book out to almost six hundred pages. In the God is an Englishman series, as I recall, we see the world through the eyes of the next generation as well, and that gives us a glimpse to how the Country changed over the course of the Victorian era.

Here we hardly see that at all, and I think we would have had a much richer tale if we had. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed following the next phase of the life of Paul Craddock and English social history. ( )

Not precisely literature, but great fun, and full of the flavor of early 20th c England, pastoral, nostalgic, somewhat romanticized.