O England!

Bookseller Notes

Rather a scarce book. The author was by then well-established as a detective novelist under the pseudonyms 'Francis Iles' and 'Anthony Berkeley', but Hamish Hamilton - then a young publisher - probably anticipated the likely readership for this book to be a little smaller: it is, the author confesses, 'written in indignation' and addresses itself to 'the ordinary citizen' in decrying the state of the nation at a time of crisis throughout Europe (Cox considers the character of Communism and Fascism, 'simple-souled twins' with 'at least one arm in common'). As often, the analysis seems to all-too-current in respect of its assessment of our political parties and the behaviour of our politicians, who are characterised by 'timidity', 'incompetence' and 'petty dishonesty': 'The Roman Emperors knew that, if they did not keep their plebs happy, they would lose their jobs, and probably their heads. Our Pollies are not afraid even of losing their seats'. Throughout his literary career, Cox wrote journalism and published collections of his work in that area, generally of a light and humorous variety - the present critique is distinguished from these by its earnest tone, though it is far from dry and full of the wit and brio that characterises his writing generally.