As other readers with not so positive reviews, I expected a lot from this book, but was disappointed. I know that the British (and especially English) countryside can be a bit of a bore due to its flatness, overpopulation and cold sea, although I didn’t expect the travelogue to literally copy this boredom. It was a slow and forced slog. I wanted to opt out as soon as I stared. I decided to go on because of the author’s acclaim.
There are things that I liked about the book., in the end though. The author managed to give voice to all those people that one sees, and wonders about what’s going on behind their polite faces. It felt like looking into a doll house (the author’s apt metaphor). I also enjoyed the portrait of the 80s in Britain. It is a solid journalism leaning less toward beauties of the country and more towards its brutal reality.