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Everyman's England
Recollected observations of England between World War I and II In this series of pen–portraits of England, commissioned by the Daily Mail in the 1930s, the pattern and color of the "great fabric of English life" from Cumberland to Cornwall is vividly conjured. The heartwarming, humorous, and often irreverent observations of sleepy villages, pastoral scenes, and busy industries provide a delightful insight into life between the wars.
- GenresTravelBritish Literature
256 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2005
About the author
Victor Canning
127 books55 followersVictor Canning was a prolific writer of novels and thrillers who flourished in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, but whose reputation has faded since his death in 1986. He was personally reticent, writing no memoirs and giving relatively few newspaper interviews.
Canning was born in Plymouth, Devon, the eldest child of a coach builder, Fred Canning, and his wife May, née Goold. During World War I his father served as an ambulance driver in France and Flanders, while he with his two sisters went to live in the village of Calstock ten miles north of Plymouth, where his uncle Cecil Goold worked for the railways and later became station master. After the war the family returned to Plymouth. In the mid 1920s they moved to Oxford where his father had found work, and Victor attended the Oxford Central School. Here he was encouraged to stay on at school and go to university by a classical scholar, Dr. Henderson, but the family could not afford it and instead Victor went to work as a clerk in the education office at age 16.
Within three years he had started selling short stories to boys’ magazines and in 1934, his first novel. Mr. Finchley Discovers his England, was accepted by Hodder and Stoughton and became a runaway best seller. He gave up his job and started writing full time, producing thirteen more novels in the next six years under three different names. Lord Rothermere engaged him to write for the Daily Mail, and a number of his travel articles for the Daily Mail were collected as a book with illustrations by Leslie Stead under the title Everyman's England in 1936. He also continued to write short stories.
He married Phyllis McEwen in 1935, a girl from a theatrical family whom he met while she was working with a touring vaudeville production at Weston-super-Mare. They had three daughters, Lindel born in 1939, Hilary born in 1940, and Virginia who was born in 1942, but died in infancy.
In 1940 he enlisted in the Army, and was sent for training with the Royal Artillery in Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales, where he trained alongside his friend Eric Ambler. Both were commissioned as second lieutenants in 1941. Canning worked in anti-aircraft batteries in the south of England until early 1943, when he was sent to North Africa and took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaigns. At the end of the war he was assigned to an Anglo-American unit doing experimental work with radar range-finding. It was top secret work but nothing to do with espionage, though Canning never discouraged the assumption of publishers and reviewers that his espionage stories were partly based on experience. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of major.
He resumed writing with The Chasm (1947), a novel about identifying a Nazi collaborator who has hidden himself in a remote Italian village. A film of this was planned but never finished. Canning’s next book, Panther’s Moon, was filmed as Spy Hunt, and from now on Canning was established as someone who could write a book a year in the suspense genre, have them reliably appear in book club and paperback editions on both sides of the Atlantic, be translated into the main European languages, and in many cases get filmed. He himself spent a year in Hollywood working on scripts for movies of his own books and on TV shows. The money earned from the film of The Golden Salamander (filmed with Trevor Howard) meant that Canning could buy a substantial country house with some land in Kent, Marle Place, where he lived for nearly twenty years and where his daughter continues to live now. From the mid 1950s onwards his books became more conventional, full of exotic settings, stirring action sequences and stock characters. In 1965 he began a series of four books featuring a private detective called Rex Carver, and these were among his most successful in sales terms.
He died in 1986.
Canning was born in Plymouth, Devon, the eldest child of a coach builder, Fred Canning, and his wife May, née Goold. During World War I his father served as an ambulance driver in France and Flanders, while he with his two sisters went to live in the village of Calstock ten miles north of Plymouth, where his uncle Cecil Goold worked for the railways and later became station master. After the war the family returned to Plymouth. In the mid 1920s they moved to Oxford where his father had found work, and Victor attended the Oxford Central School. Here he was encouraged to stay on at school and go to university by a classical scholar, Dr. Henderson, but the family could not afford it and instead Victor went to work as a clerk in the education office at age 16.
Within three years he had started selling short stories to boys’ magazines and in 1934, his first novel. Mr. Finchley Discovers his England, was accepted by Hodder and Stoughton and became a runaway best seller. He gave up his job and started writing full time, producing thirteen more novels in the next six years under three different names. Lord Rothermere engaged him to write for the Daily Mail, and a number of his travel articles for the Daily Mail were collected as a book with illustrations by Leslie Stead under the title Everyman's England in 1936. He also continued to write short stories.
He married Phyllis McEwen in 1935, a girl from a theatrical family whom he met while she was working with a touring vaudeville production at Weston-super-Mare. They had three daughters, Lindel born in 1939, Hilary born in 1940, and Virginia who was born in 1942, but died in infancy.
In 1940 he enlisted in the Army, and was sent for training with the Royal Artillery in Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales, where he trained alongside his friend Eric Ambler. Both were commissioned as second lieutenants in 1941. Canning worked in anti-aircraft batteries in the south of England until early 1943, when he was sent to North Africa and took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaigns. At the end of the war he was assigned to an Anglo-American unit doing experimental work with radar range-finding. It was top secret work but nothing to do with espionage, though Canning never discouraged the assumption of publishers and reviewers that his espionage stories were partly based on experience. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of major.
He resumed writing with The Chasm (1947), a novel about identifying a Nazi collaborator who has hidden himself in a remote Italian village. A film of this was planned but never finished. Canning’s next book, Panther’s Moon, was filmed as Spy Hunt, and from now on Canning was established as someone who could write a book a year in the suspense genre, have them reliably appear in book club and paperback editions on both sides of the Atlantic, be translated into the main European languages, and in many cases get filmed. He himself spent a year in Hollywood working on scripts for movies of his own books and on TV shows. The money earned from the film of The Golden Salamander (filmed with Trevor Howard) meant that Canning could buy a substantial country house with some land in Kent, Marle Place, where he lived for nearly twenty years and where his daughter continues to live now. From the mid 1950s onwards his books became more conventional, full of exotic settings, stirring action sequences and stock characters. In 1965 he began a series of four books featuring a private detective called Rex Carver, and these were among his most successful in sales terms.
He died in 1986.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 28, 2014
Victor Canning set off on a journey around a rapidly changing England in the 1930's at his papers behest, in essence an almost state of the nation form of reportage in which he visited places both familiar and unfamiliar to him, reporting back on what he found. Almost a hundred years later you might wonder what modern day relevance such reportage could have, quite a lot actually, Canning offers us a view of a nation in transformation, one moving away from its traditional lifestyles and transforming into the largely urbanised culture that we see today. Almost a Eulogy for a lost time and place Canning details the last survivors of an ancient culture many still clinging onto the last scraps of a way of life that is equal parts enshrined in English tradition whilst equally lost to progress. We get portraits of a people tied to the land as well as the authors frank appraisal of how their world is changing both for the better and to their detriment. Canning is a great narrator, never given to over sentimentality when the facts present otherwise and overall it is his humour that shines through along with his deep sense of humanity. Given that this seems to be(as far as I can tell) his only foray into travel writing it is a shame that we did not get to experience more of his irreverent style as you can easily pick him out as a precursor to Bill Bryson style travel writing.
Overall a great read offering a great insight into the past and perhaps inadvertently a direction for the future in celebrating the things that once made England great.
Overall a great read offering a great insight into the past and perhaps inadvertently a direction for the future in celebrating the things that once made England great.
October 19, 2020
This was an unexpected delight. The writing is a combination of a travelogue, a social snapshot of various English towns, and a bit of nature writing. The author is a careful observer and a funny guide.
May 20, 2012
What an utterly charming read! Canning was commissioned by the Daily Mail to write a series of travel articles covering all corners of England, during the 1930's. And what a treat they are - wryly humorous, wonderfully poetic, and immensely poignant, all at once. The only quibble I have is at the lack of a map, but time spent pouring over the intricate map of England in the National Geographic Atlas of the World is never time poorly spent.
July 9, 2013
This should have been just my thing, a travelogue set in 1930s England. But offsetting evocative descriptions of places in time was a tone that was sometimes condescension masquerading as appreciation plus a certain sour snarkiness. Slight and certainly not as transporting as I expected.
September 29, 2021
this book is a charming look at the many places and people in england, and it is certainly enjoyable. complete with great writing to describe scenery and unforgettable tidbits of his travels, it does not fail to emphasize the contrast between rural and modern in a fastly changing world, especially during the 20th century, specifically the 1930s, on the brink of ww2. i especially like how he focuses on the more obscure places of england, and it made me really want to tread on the lands he did. on many instances did i open google earth on the places he mentioned and walked around it using street view to try to feel what he felt. it was interesting to see his descriptions of towns of england back in the 30s, and go to google earth and see the same towns to check if anything changed (it almost always does). the little hint-dropping of places and towns for people to find and not saying the names in fear of more people flocking is understandable and a fact i relate to.
overall, this book paints a wonderful picture of the people and towns of england during a time where change from traditional to modern is beginning to grow rampant, and it elicits a wondrous excitement and curiosity in the reader, or at least, to me. tl;dr, wonderful
overall, this book paints a wonderful picture of the people and towns of england during a time where change from traditional to modern is beginning to grow rampant, and it elicits a wondrous excitement and curiosity in the reader, or at least, to me. tl;dr, wonderful
July 29, 2012
Beautiful nostalgic cover; it lured me across the library and jumped into my hand before I had time to reflect on the number of books waiting to be read on my shelves. The first few pages suggest it's going to be a great pleasure to read.
Finished it over (a very leisurely) breakfast this morning. I'd have liked longer to savour it but some monster has reserved it at the library.
A very nostalgic read - to go with the cover. Beautifully written accounts of places and people long gone or changed beyond recognition, no doubt. I'm planning a pilgrimage to all the places he mentions in the book to see what they have retained from the '30s and, I hope, new charms they have to offer.
Finished it over (a very leisurely) breakfast this morning. I'd have liked longer to savour it but some monster has reserved it at the library.
A very nostalgic read - to go with the cover. Beautifully written accounts of places and people long gone or changed beyond recognition, no doubt. I'm planning a pilgrimage to all the places he mentions in the book to see what they have retained from the '30s and, I hope, new charms they have to offer.
August 22, 2014
A lovely book (not a guidebook, per the author) about his ramblings throughout the different counties of England. In a few places he does not name the town, but gives hints to the reader so we might try to find it on our own and perhaps in trying stumble upon other charming places. He had a nice sense of humour as well.
March 7, 2015
This England is gone. Lovely description. Very enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews