So Harry’s taken the offensive and offered his services--it turns out that what he’s needed for now is to be a substitute son--and Harry wins over the locals himself to work out the kinks in the plan. He is also a lover of rail travel and did not like the fact that the British rail service was shrinking even while he was making this trip. Vicarages, silver sixpences, ``the banked sleekness of chestnuts'' and good-hearted ghosts are among the trimmings that give these posthumously collected stories their old-fashioned charm. felt a common purpose and even walked tall, which might have contributed to his feelings of loneliness and estrangement.

Here the author perpetuates an ugly, misguided stereotype by implying that the corporal's brutal behavior is part and parcel of his sexual preference. Then he thundered downstairs, the crack of light from the kitchen door lighting up the edge of each stair-tread. Westall's 1975 novel The Machine Gunners, about a group of children in England during World War II, inspired many letters from readers who had themselves been children during the war.Now that Bob's girlfriend is dead, a vow he once made to her takes on macabre new implications; PW said, ``Westall's tale is good spooky fun--and thought-provoking as well. I have, happily, managed to put my hands on the review I wrote when I first read this book in 1992, and here 'tis.

I found his account of Ulster fascinating, if marred by complete lack of historical background replaced by a bizarre theory about family roles, and the description of desolate grandeur of Sutherland made me want to go there immediately. However, he's amongst the best for idiosyncratic, personal, impressionistic relation, and the miserable old git persona very well suited indeed to the time and place he describes in The Kingdom by the Sea.THEROUX has an ingenious theory for the violence and cruelty of that murderous province - that it arises from the inflated status of women as the family wage earners.

For a book which I understand was written for children and young adults, there are some surprisingly adult themes. The beginning on the south and west of England is slow at times, but the section on Northern Ireland was amazing, and Scotland and east England continue.Harry pushes on with a wisdom well beyond his years, even as his country fights for its own existence. To prepare for the book, he decided to follow the coastline around Britain traveling clockwise, and to include Norther Ireland. Another factor is that Theroux spent a lot of time discussing and writing about the 1982 Falklands War, which was happening during his trip. It was 1982, the summer of the Falklands War and the royal baby, and the ideal time, he found, to surprise the British into talking about themselves. This book provokes a lot of negative reactions: I can see why, though as a non-native I don't share the outrage.