Wasted and England

I have just finished and enjoyed reading Tono-Bungay by H. G. Wells. It is considered to be his "semi-autobiography" novel and is very different from his relatively sterile and mechanic science fiction novels such as War of the Worlds. It is a sad but very real and personal account which concludes that the lives of the narrator/author and those he dealt with were "wasted" in a search for truth.

"Wasted" is a sad epitaph and I would like better for myself and those I love. At least Wells was honest enough so as to give his readers a chance to rethink their lives. People are remembered for all manner of achievements -  Isambard Kingdom Brunel comes to mind for his splendid name and his bridge over the river Tamar which I loved from first sight as a child - such accomplishments are far beyond any of mine. Perhaps I should simply be content with godliness which, the good book says, is great gain, but how to do that?

Towards the end of his book Wells writes "This is England. That is what I wanted to give in my book. This!". This quality, this entity which is England, is something I would like to write more about. It is what makes me want to write "English" rather than "British" on official documents such as a passport application. Having heard the Irish perspective I am now no longer so proud to be British but I cannot help still being English and I sometimes hanker for England's rolling hills, picturesque villages and profusion of footpaths. Possibly the distinction between British and English is not clear to those who belong to other nationalities.

My wife likes the English traffic lights, road signs and hedgerows which, she says, are more robust and less untidy than here in Ireland. I am not altogether sure that this is a fair judgement. Ireland is, after all, a different country so one should expect some differences.

My parents had a thin blue paper-back book of poems - possibly This is my England and other poems - anyway it tickled my fancy at the time because it seemed to evoke "England", and I would like to read it again. The nearest I could find on the internet was Duality, an anthology by the same author, and I recognise the style. If anyone wants to do me a good turn they could lend or buy me a copy of This is my England and other peoms... But probably I would find it no longer had the same appeal.