'The finest book ever written about England and the English' Stuart Maconie 'J. B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century and it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius.' Dame Judi Dench Three years before George Orwell made his expedition to the far and frozen North in The Road to Wigan Pier, celebrated writer and broadcaster JB Priestley cast his net wider, in a book subtitled '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.' Appearing first in 1934, it was a huge and immediate success. Today, it still stands as a timeless classic: warm-hearted, intensely patriotic and profound. An account of his journey through England - from Southampton to the Black Country, to the North East and Newcastle, to Norwich and home - English Journey is funny and tender. But it is also a forensic reading of a changing England and a call to arms as passionate as anything in Orwell's bleak masterpiece. Moreover, it both captured and catalysed the public mood of its time. In capturing and describing an English landscape and people hitherto unseen, writing scathingly about vested interests and underlining the dignity of working people, Priestley influenced the thinking and attitudes of an entire generation and helped formulate a public consensus for change that led to the birth of the welfare state. Prophetic and as relevant today as it was nearly ninety years ago, English Journey is an elegant and readable love letter to a country Priestley finds unfathomable.

English Journey: ‘The finest book ever written about England and the English’

History

PRIESTLEY, J.B.

Europe

HarperNorth

'An exquisitely-written, generous, funny, thoughtful book about the everyday joys of being alive. I love it.' Dolly Alderton 'J. B. Priestley is one of our literary icons of the 20th Century and it is time that we all became re-acquainted with his genius.' Dame Judi Dench 'My apology, my little bit of penitence, for having grumbled so much, for having darkened the breakfast table, almost ruined the lunch, nearly silence the dinner party, for all the fretting and chafing, grousing and croaking, for the old glum look and the thrust-out lower lip. So my long-suffering kinsfolk, my patient friends, may a glimmer of that delight which has so often possessed me, but perhaps too frequently in secret, now reach you from these pages.' There are times when there doesn't seem much to smile about. And for those times, there is this book. J. B Priestley's 1949 classic teaches us that joy may be found in even the simplest things, and that we all have the capacity to appreciate them. Delight comprises a series of short essays, all focussing on a single simple pleasure, from reading detective stories in bed to smoking a pipe in the bath; from 'Cosy planning' to the earliest summer mornings; and from mineral water in the bedrooms of foreign hotels to the smell of bacon in the morning. Combining poignant memories of his childhood with glimpses of his interior world, panoramas of life abroad with thoughts about writing, music, theatre - some strictly personal, some universal -this highly readable book bursts with humour and literary flare on every page.

Delight

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

In this beautifully illustrated volume, Mr. Priestley surveys the social, political, industrial and artistic life of the 1850's.

Victoria's heyday

Harper&Row

Published in 1929 and J.B. Priestley's first major international success, "The Good Companions" follows an unlikely trio seeking to escape their humdrum lives. It is recounted in picaresque style. Yorkshireman Jess Oakroyd leaves his job and family to seek work 'down South'. On the road he meets wealthy spinster Elizabeth Trant, and along with unfulfilled music teacher Inigo Jollifant, joins the flagging concert troupe Miss Trant has decided to fund. The 'Dinky Dogs' become "The Good Companions", travelling around the shires of England together, discovering adventure, new optimism and opportunities. Rodney Bewes is an English television actor and writer famed for his role in "The Likely Lads".

The good companions (Penguin modern classics)

Penguin

London End

Literature & Fiction

THE YEARS OF QUEEN VICTORIA'S GREATEST HAPPINESS WITH PRINCE ALBERT, THE 1850S WITH THE GREAT EXHIBITION AND FLOWERING OF THE ARTS.

Victoria's Heyday

When we are married, and other plays

Dramas & Plays

"An Inspector Calls", first produced in 1946 when society was undergoing sweeping transformations, has recently enjoyed an enormously successful revival. While holding its audience with the gripping tension of a detective thriller, it is also a philosophical play about social conscience and the crumbling of middle class values. "Time and the Conways" and "I Have Been Here Before" belong to Priestley's 'time'plays, in which he explores the idea of precognition and pits fate against free will. "The Linden Tree" also challenges preconceived ideas of history when Professor Linden comes into conflict with his family about how life should be lived after the war.

An Inspector Calls and Other Plays Time and the Conways (Penguin Modern Classics)

THE EDWARDIANS (PENGUIN CLASSIC HISTORY S.)

Penguin Books Canada, Limited

The Regency Period is perhaps the most romantic of British history. It was an age which swung between extremes of elegance and refinement, and depths of sodden brutality. The central figure is the Prince Regent, Prinny, and though he sometimes appears as a gigantic spoilt child, he was famously good company and a notable patron of the arts. The author portrays the personalities of the giants of the romantic age - Byron, Shelley, Sheridan, Wordsworth, Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott; Davy Faraday and Macadam; Turner, Constable and Cotman - to name a few. It was an age of extravagance; an age marked by great eccentricities and prodigous jokes; the luddite riots; the Battles of Waterloo and Peterloo; the first waltzes and the first locomotives.

The Prince of Pleasure and His Regency, 1811-20

Penguin Books, Ltd.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by PRIESTLEY, J.B.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by PRIESTLEY, J.B.