Word: britain
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...14th Earl of Home (pronounced Hume), 76, who as Sir Alec Douglas-Home was Britain's Prime Minister in 1963-64, is also an author. In Border Reflections, he recounts his private life as Lord Home of the Hirsel, the gray stone 70-room Home "hoose" on the English-Scottish border, surrounded by 3,000 acres of grouse moors and prime fishing spots along a stream called Leet Water. Angular Angler Home, who has tried "every known lure from the maggot to the dryest of flies," also dotes on lore. His technique for harvesting worms, a favorite bait: "Take...
...airlines were hotels, most of them would be out of business. This familiar plaint of the frequent passenger was quantified last week with publication of a 1980 travel guide assembled by Egon Ronay, one of Britain's most acerbic critics of pretentious food and sloppy service. For the first time in its 22 years, Ronay's Lucas Guide (Penguin; $9.95) goes beyond its customary survey of British restaurants and inns to rate-and berate-14 Britain-to-North America carriers. Some of them may want to head for the nearest cloud...
...part is the skill and lineage of the author. Thomas Pakenham's mother, the Countess of Longford, is the biographer of Victoria and Wellington. His sister is Antonia Fraser, biographer of Cromwell, Mary Queen of Scots and Charles II. Pakenham was able to prowl the great houses of Britain in search of long-lost letters, papers and diaries, took time to learn Dutch and Afrikaans, and early in his eight years of research recorded the memories of the last survivors...
...Britain was ill prepared for conflict. Despite its burgeoning Empire, its army was small-fewer than 320,000 men, most of them already tied down in colonial duties. (France had an army of 4 million.) War was, in fact, totally unnecessary. The British wanted political representation in the Transvaal for the Outlanders. Kruger was willing to bargain, but South African High Commissioner Alfred Milner, unfortunately, was the go-between. He was a dedicated warmonger, secretly backed by millionaire gold entrepreneurs. Troops were sent. They marched into the first 20th century war ready to fight with 19th century tactics...
Mavis Gallant. The name has a romantic ring to it, suggesting a pretty girl, sunlight on English countryside and happy endings, possibly during the Battle of Britain. But no modern writer casts a colder eye on life, on death and all the angst and eccentricity in between. A Canadian, Mrs. Gallant has lived in France since World War II. There she produces her lapidary long stories and an occasional dazzling short novel, usually set in Europe. Her work appears regularly in The New Yorker. Canada seems about to give her the Governor General's Literary Award...