Recommended Books

General & History -- Anthony Sampson's The Changing Anatomy of Britain (Random House) still gives great insight into the idiosyncrasies of English society; Winston Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples (Dodd Mead) is a tour de force in four volumes; while The Gathering Storm (Houghton-Mifflin) captures Europe on the brink of World War II.

My Love Affair with England (Ballantine), by Susan Allan Toth, tells of England's "many-layered past" and includes such tidbits as why English marmalade tastes good only when consumed as part of a real (make that greasy) English breakfast.

Britons: Forging the Nation (1707-1837), Yale University Press, by Linda Colley, took more than a decade to finish. Ms. Colley takes the reader from the date of the Act of Union (formally joining Scotland and Wales to England) to the succession of the adolescent Victoria to the British throne. Children of the Sun (Basics Books), by Martin Green, portrays the "decadent" 1920s and the lives of such people as Randolph Churchill, Rupert Brooke, the Prince of Wales, and Christopher Isherwood.

In A Writer's Britain (Knopf), contemporary English author Margaret Drabble takes readers on a tour of the sacred and haunted literary landscapes of England, places that inspired Hardy, Woolf, Spenser, and Marvell.

Outsiders often paint more penetrating portraits than residents of any culture ever can. In England's case, many have expressed their views of the country at different periods. An early-18th-century portrait is provided by K. P. Moritz in Journeys of a German in England in 1782 (Holt, Rinehart & Winston), about his travels from London to the Midlands. Nathaniel Hawthorne recorded his impressions in Our Old Home (1863), as did Ralph Waldo Emerson in English Traits (1856). For an ironic portrait of mid-19th-century Victorian British morals, manners, and society, seek out Taine's Notes on England (1872). Henry James's comments on England at the turn of the 20th century in English Hours are worth a read. In A Passage to England (St. Martins Press), Nirad Chaudhuri analyzes Britain and the British in a delightful, humorous book -- a process continued today by such authors as Salman Rushdie, V. S. Naipaul, and Paul Theroux. Among the interesting portraits written by natives are Cobbet's Rural Rides (1830), depicting early-19th-century England; In Search of England (Methuen) by H. V. Morton; and English Journey (Harper) by J. B. Priestley. For what's really going on behind that serene Suffolk village scene, read Ronald Blythe's Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (Random House).

Art & Architecture -- For general reference, there's the huge multivolume Oxford History of English Art (Oxford University Press) and also the Encyclopedia of British Art (Thames Hudson), by David Bindman. Painting in Britain 1530-1790 (Penguin), by Ellis Waterhouse, covers British art from the Tudor miniaturists to Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Hogarth, while English Art, 1870-1940 (Oxford University Press), by Dennis Farr, covers the modern period.

On architecture, for sheer amusing, opinionated entertainment, try John Betjeman's Ghastly Good Taste -- the Rise and Fall of English Architecture (St. Martin's Press). A History of English Architecture (Penguin), by Peter Kidson, Peter Murray, and Paul Thompson, covers the subject from Anglo-Saxon to modern times. Nikolaus Pevsner's The Best Buildings of England: An Anthology (Viking) and his Outline of European Architecture (Penguin) concentrate on the great periods of Tudor, Georgian, and Regency architecture. Mark Girouard has written several books on British architecture including The Victorian Country House (Country Life) and Life in the English Country House (Yale University Press), a fascinating social/architectural history from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, with handsome illustrations.

About London -- London Perceived (Hogarth), by novelist and literary critic V. S. Pritchett, is a witty portrait of the city's history, art, literature, and life. Virginia Woolf's The London Scene: Five Essays (Random House) brilliantly depicts the London of the 1930s. In Search of London (Methuen), by H. V. Morton, is filled with anecdotal history and well worth reading, though written in the 1950s.

In London: The Biography of a City (Penguin), popular historian Christopher Hibbert paints a lively portrait. For some real 17th-century history, you can't beat the Diary of Samuel Pepys (written 1660-69); and for the flavor of the 18th century, try Daniel Defoe's Tour Thro' London About the Year 1725 (Ayer).

Americans in London (William Morrow), by Brian N. Morton, is a street-by-street guide to clubs, homes, and favorite pubs of more than 250 illustrious Americans who made London a temporary home. The Guide to Literary London (Batsford), by George Williams, charts literary tours through London from Chelsea to Bloomsbury.

The Architect's Guide to London (Reed International), by Renzo Salvadori, documents 100 landmark buildings with photographs and maps. Nairn's London (Penguin), by Ian Nairn, is a stimulating discourse on London's buildings. Donald Olsen's The City as a Work of Art: London, Paris, and Vienna (Yale University Press) is a well-illustrated text tracing the evolution of these great cities. London One: The Cities of London and Westminster and London Two: South (Penguin) are works of love by well-known architectural writers Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner. David Piper's The Artist's London (Oxford University Press) does what the title suggests -- captures the city that artists have portrayed. In Victorian and Edwardian London (Batsford), John Betjeman expresses his great love of those eras and their great buildings. Looking Up in London (Wiley Academy) by Jane Peyton offers colorful photos of some of London's architectural features.

Fiction & Biography -- Among English writers are found some of the greatest exponents of mystery and suspense novels from which a reader can get a good feel for English life both urban and rural. Agatha Christie, P. D. James, and Dorothy Sayers are a few of the familiar names, but the great London character is, of course, Sherlock Holmes, created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Any of these writers will give pleasure and insight into your London experience.

England's literary heritage is so vast, it's hard to select particular titles, but here are a few favorites. Master storyteller Charles Dickens re-creates Victorian London in such books as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and his earlier satirical Sketches by Boz.

Edwardian London and the 1920s and '30s are captured wonderfully in any of Evelyn Waugh's social satires and comedies; any work from the Bloomsbury group will also prove enlightening, such as Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, which peers beneath the surface of the London scene. For a portrait of wartime London there's Elizabeth Bowen's The Heat of the Day; for an American slant on England and London there's Henry James's The Awkward Age.

Among 18th-century figures, there's a great biography of Samuel Johnson by his friend James Boswell, whose Life of Samuel Johnson (Modern Library College Editions) was first published in 1791. Antonia Fraser has written several biographies of English monarchs and political figures, including Charles II and Oliver Cromwell. Her most recent is The Wives of Henry VIII (Knopf), telling the sad story of the six women foolish enough to marry the Tudor monarch.

Another great Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I, emerges in a fully rounded portrait: The Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I, Genius of the Golden Age (Addison-Wesley), by Christopher Hibbert.

Another historian, Anne Somerset, wrote Elizabeth I (St. Martin's Press), which was hailed by some critics as the most "readable and reliable" portrait of England's most revered monarch to have emerged since 1934.

No woman -- or man, for that matter -- had greater influence on London than did Queen Victoria during her long reign (1837-1901). Sarah Ferguson, the duchess of York (Prince Andrew's former wife, "Fergie"), along with Benita Stoney, a professional researcher, captures the era in Victoria and Albert: A Family Life at Osborne House (Prentice Hall). One reviewer said that Fergie writes about "England's 19th-century rulers not as historical figures but as a loving couple and caring parents."

Another point of view is projected in Victoria: The Young Queen (Blackwell), by Monica Charlot. This book has been praised for its "fresh information"; it traces the life of Victoria until the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1861. Queen Elizabeth II granted Charlot access to the Royal Archives.

In Elizabeth II, Portrait of a Monarch (St. Martin's Press), Douglas Keay drew on interviews with Prince Philip and Prince Charles.

Richard Ellman's Oscar Wilde (Knopf) also reveals such Victorian-era personalities as Lillie Langtry, Gilbert and Sullivan, and Henry James along the way. Quintessential English playwright Noël Coward and the London he inhabited, along with the likes of Nancy Mitford, Cecil Beaton, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Evelyn Waugh, and Rebecca West, are captured in Cole Lesley's Remembered Laughter (Knopf). The Lives of John Lennon (William Morrow), by Albert Goldman, traces the life of this most famous of all '60s musicians.

Dickens (Harper Perennial), by Peter Ackroyd, is a study of the painful life of the novelist. It's a massive volume, tracing everything from the reception of his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, to his scandalous desertion of his wife.

Other good reads include Wild Spirit: The Story of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Hodder & Stoughton), by Margaret Morley, a fictionalized biography of the poet. Gertrude Jekyll (Viking), by Sally Festing, paints a portrait of the woman called "the greatest artist in horticulture." Anthony Trollope (Knopf), by Victoria Glendinning, is a provocative portrait of the English novelist. Lawrence and the Women: The Intimate Life of D. H. Lawrence (HarperCollins), by Elaine Feinstein, examines involvements with the female friends and lovers of this passionately sensitive novelist.

Contemporary Literature -- Born to a Jamaican mother and a British father, Zadie Smith is one of the most talented young authors in England. Published in 2000, her novel, White Teeth (Vintage), brought her early acclaim and a bestseller. She followed up with The Autograph Man (Vintage, 2002) and On Beauty (Penguin, 2005), both of which won prizes for fiction. Her writings are known for their deep penetration of the rainbow-hued races inhabiting Britain today.

The writings of Nick Hornby have earned him the title European Ambassador of Goodness. An autobiographical work, his first book, Fever Pitch, was published in 1992 to both success and acclaim. In subsequent novels, he explores sports, music, "and aimless and obsessive personalities." Several of his works have been adapted for film, including About A Boy, starring Hugh Grant.

Influenced by the writing of his father, Sir Kingley Amis, Martin Amis has written some of the best known works of English modern literature, especially Money in 1986 and London Fields in 1989. The New York Times called him the undisputed master of "the new unpleasantness." He explores the excesses of the capitalist world, plunging a sword into the heart of grotesque caricatures. His memoir, Experience, explored his relationship with his father, and his 2003 novel Yellow Dog, although praised by fans, was a disappointment in some quarters.

The English fiction writer, Joanne Rowling, writing under the pen name of J.K. Rowling, created the Harry Potter fantasy series, which has sold nearly 400 million copies worldwide and made her an estimated fortune of $1 billion, a first for any author. She was an unemployed single mom when she completed her first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997). In 2007 Rowling released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which she claims will be the last of the series.