God Is an Englishman: 1 (Swann Family Saga)

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Using his book as a measuring stick against the past, it’s remarkable how little England seems to have changed (especially for the better) in that half a century that I have now lived through. Adam told her about the business he had in mind and she suggested a logo for him of a Swan on Wheels.

While the business is essentially a family one, much of its success is due to finding the right staff in the right place and giving them every incentive to perform and develop the business. Both of these women manage to break out of the mold of their rightful place in society, at least for a while, and I really loved how indispensable they became to Adam and his success. She ended up turning her job over to her husband and becoming a This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising.All of this is seen through the eyes of Adam as he puts his flexible mind to the question of how to succeed in the middle of it all while maintaining human dignity and avoiding exploitation. A Victorian family chronicle about the rise to wealth of Adam Swann and his ever-expanding network of transport depots which stretch north to the scottish Highlands and west to the Dublin Pale. Minor issues present such as mild cracking, inscriptions, inserts, light foxing, tanning and thumb marking.

Henry Wood with is cited several times along the narrative and was mostly related to Henrietta character while the firs ones were related to their children's education. One becomes aware of how much writing has changed over the years with very few modern authors taking the time to provide such precise descriptive writing. So, I'm well into this well-crafted story and wondering just a teeny bit if my interest will be sustained for next 600+ pages or so.I think he's probably right, but this hidden religious pulse, by the very fact that it is essentially off the radar and private, is devilishly hard to pin down.

Adam went to meet Deborah and brought her home for the Christmas holidays and she was accepted by Henrietta and the children. And he is determined to win the beautiful, strong-minded Henrietta, and persuade her to share in his struggles and triumphs. The old Colonel could not have said when or why the premonition touched him, causing a small, inward shudder. I've just slipped under the 200-pages-to-go mark in this 800-plus page beast and am still enjoying the storytelling as long as I don't try to read a lot at a time.To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Adam is a great character, and certainly deserved to have another, equally good character as his partner during this enjoyable saga, and the author has provided this in the shape of Henrietta, Daughter of a somewhat unscrupulous mill owner, a young woman with a mind of her own, whose character develops as the story unfolds. He sees that the ever growing railway network has put those offering more traditional ways of moving goods around the country out of business, leaving gaps in the market that his well organised and innovative approach to business can fill.

Having spent ten years organising road haulage runs all over England, I totally empathise with the massive task Adam Swann set himself and I have to say, it takes someone of that character to tackle the job today. While Adam and Henrietta’s relationship is less passionate than that of the Poldarks, it has some interesting twists. Adam showed her around his business because she had an aversion to his being in a trade rather than in the military. The thread that binds the three elements into one is the national role of the Church of England, straddling religion, politics and society. He is sensitive to the suffering of his fellow human beings, whether that be the factory hands in cotton mills or the street orphans in London.

At some points I wondered where it was going - there’s not much predictability in the sudden turns a man’s life can take - but overall there was momentum and motion and purpose, and satisfying change in the characters. I thought their wedding night was very well written: Henrietta naive but determined, and both of them pleasantly surprised. Since this novel was originally written in 1970, I assumed it would feel dated, but it really doesn’t. As he saw it though, “what gets on British people’s nerves is that they no longer know who they are.