I decided to sample Delderfield after finishing the Poldark series and having withdrawal symptoms. I wanted another family I could sink my teeth into and become completely involved in. This novel was set in the same time frame as Poldark, but actually covers completely different issues, so I stopped comparing the two and just settled down to enjoy this story as a thing apart. That worked out fine, because there is a lot to enjoy here.

following the enormous success of God Is an Englishman. -- is a vast, engrossing novel of England at the height of her power and of Adam Swann, the adventurous founder of a mighty commercial empire, his wife Henrietta and the family of spirited, headstrong children who will carry his name and fortune into the future: Delderfield's first published play was produced at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1936; the Birmingham Post wrote "more please, Mr Delderfield". [2] :250 One of his plays, Worm's Eye View, had a run at the Whitehall Theatre in London, and was filmed in 1951 with Diana Dors. Following service in the RAF during World War II, he resumed his literary career, while also running an antiques business near Budleigh Salterton, Devon. Having begun with drama, Delderfield decided to switch to writing novels in the 1950s. His first novel, Seven Men of Gascony, a tale of French soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars, was published in 1949 by Werner Laurie. [3] In 1950 he featured in a BBC Newsreel clip of the short-lived The Axminster and Lyme Regis Clarion in Lyme Regis. [4] Autobiography [ edit ]This is such an interesting read....a little predictable at times, but also surprising and interesting.

William Blake penned the poem as a riff on an apocryphal story about adolescent Jesus visiting England’s shores and finding it to be heaven on earth. The hymn was written when religious fervor was rife in England; many believed God “favored” our land. Such words convey that nationality, not spirituality, is God’s highest priority. Moreover, they assume something about “the English” that requires God to be more for us than he is for others. Such sentiment, I fear, isn’t confined to the past or restricted to my nation.

Now I long for the church attendance, respect of the Bible, and gospel zeal of previous generations of my kinsmen according to the flesh. However, my forbearer’s apparent linking of “Englishness” and “Christianity” wasn’t just unbiblical but positively counter-biblical. Now and Forever - BFI Filmography". filmography.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020.