Gentry: Stories of the English by Nicolson, Adam - 2011

London: Harper Press , 2011 We may well be 'a nation of shopkeepers', but for generations England was a country dominated by its middling families, rooted on their land, in their locality, with a healthy interest in turning a profit from their property and a deep distrust of the centralised state. The virtues we may all believe to be part of the English culture, honesty, affability, courtesy, liberality, each of these has their source in gentry life cultivated over five hundred years. These folk were the backbone of England. This book concentrates on fourteen families with a time span from 1400 to the present day. From the medieval gung ho of the Plumpton family to the high seas adventures of the Lascelles in the 18th century, to more modern examples, the book provides a chronological picture of the English, seen through these intimate, passionate, powerful stories of family saga. The families have been selected from all over the country and range from the famous to the unknown. 460p. illus. index. 1st.UK Ed... Hard Cover. New/New.