Adventures On The High Teas: In Search Of Middle England

Description:
Everyone talks about 'Middle England'. Sometimes they mean something bad, like a lynch mob of 'Daily Mail' readers, and sometimes they mean something good, like a pint of ale in a sleepy Cotswold village in summer twilight. But just where and what is Middle England? Stuart Maconie didn't know either, so he packed his Thermos and sandwiches and set off to find out...Is Middle England about tradition and decency or closed minds and bigotry? Is it maypoles and evensong, or flooded market towns and binge drinkers in the park? And is Slough really as bad as Ricky Gervais and John Betjeman make out? From Shakespeare to JK Rowling, Vaughan Williams to Craig David, William Morris to B&Q, Stuart Maconie leads the expedition, with plenty of stop-offs for tea and scones, to discover the truth.

Review:
Stuart Maconie discovers whether Middle England is a place or a feeling... all described with his usual charm and wit. Lonely Planet 20090301 Maconie's gift is finding beauty in the most unexpected places and after reading this you'll want to call up Google maps and plan your own journey. It's a wonderfully enriching read. News of the World 20090308 Taken as a whole, the book amounts to a time capsule of England as it is now; it is, in its quirky offbeat way, a celebration of this country's extra-ordinary capacity to accomodate change while remaining essentially the same. Mail on Sunday 20090308 It is these juxtapositions of the high and the low, the hip and the furiously unfashionable, or, if you like, the sublime and the ridiculous, that make Maconie such an entertaining tour guide. Mail on Sunday 20090308

Author Biography:
Stuart Maconie is familiar to millions as a TV and radio presenter. He is the host of Stuart Maconie's Critical List on BBC Radio 2 and Freak Zone on Radio 6, and has written and presented dozens of other shows on BBC Radio. He presents the DVD Collection on BBC Four and is a regular panellist on Never Mind the Buzzcocks on BBC2. As well as a popping up in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, he is a favourite on hit nostalgia TV such as the BBC's I-the 1970s. His other books include the acclaimed official biographies of both Blur and James. He can name GQ Man of the Year and Sony Awards Radio Broadcaster of the Year amongst his accolades.