Giles, the family intellectual; and George, who succumbs to the charms of his German landlady but marries a pretty young Austrian who brings him an embryo motor car as her dowry. He could not be sure whether his presence brought any real comfort but it must have eased Briarley's inner tensions to some extent for presently he said, 'I didn't see a great deal of him, sir. When I was a kid he was mostly in India or Ireland. He came here once, on leave. Last autumn, it was. We… we sat here for a bit, waiting for the school boneshaker to take him to the station.' Adam Swann is a very interesting and smart character and his aims to build his own place in the world are a kind of microcosm of how industry and entrepreneurism changed the world in the mid-1800s. His feisty wife, Henrietta, adds another dimension to both this man and the story, and Delderfield peoples the novel with a supporting cast that feels real and substantial. While there are sections in which the building of Swann-on-Wheels, Adam’s business, can become a little laborious, the understanding of it is essential to understanding the characters and their lives. The two-volume work The Avenue, which follows the residents of a middle-class suburban road over a few decades, begins shortly after the end of World War I with the return of one resident, who finds that his wife has died in the Spanish flu epidemic and left him with several children to care for. From master author R. F. Delderfield, the first in the beloved classic God Is an Englishman series."

Sam Rawlinson had grown into a position of wealth and owned of a mill. His wife had died giving birth to Henrietta and he valued her as a possession to be used to gain more wealth. Henrietta was 18 and refused to be forced into a marriage in exchange for land. The striking mill workers had caused a riot and set the mill on fire. Henrietta used the distraction as an opportunity to run away from home. A storm came up and her horse threw her and ran off. She found a hut outside of town and used it to get out of the rain.In Chapter 2, he writes, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both (Jew and Gentile) one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (italics mine). The thread that binds the three elements into one is the national role of the Church of England, straddling religion, politics and society. So when Moreton recounts familiar episodes such as the Hillsborough disaster, various royal weddings and divorces, the miners' strike and the death of Princess Diana, he is mixing his own reactions, those of the established church, and a bigger picture of how each played in the public consciousness. The next two years brought the Swann's name notoriety through employee activities. Hamlet Ratcliff was informed that his job was in jeopardy. Hamlet set about catching a circus lion that had gotten loose while being transported by a different company whose driver was drunk. His catching the lion increased the popularity of the line in his area and kept him from being replaced. Well, then, you've got a job ahead of you. Your mother is going to need you badly. That's something to keep in mind, isn't it?' On a scouting expedition, he meets Henrietta, the daughter of a small town mill owner. She is driven by a desire to escape and she finds it with Swann. The novel is about the rise of his business and the development of their romance.

Thia bestselling novel set in the ruthless world of Victorian commerce follows the fortunes of Adam Swann, scion of an Army family and veteran of campaigns in the Crimea and in India, in his quest to found his own financial dynasty. His struggle to succeed and his conquest of Henrietta, the spirited daughter of a rich manufacturer, drive a richly woven tale that takes the reader from the dusty plains of India to the teeming slums of nineteenth-century London, from the chaos of the great industrial cities of the age to the peaceful certainties of the English countryside.Much of the history in the book is well-researched and accurate, but there is also a touch of anachronism in some of the actions and attitudes that reflect more toward the time in which the book is being written than the time in which it is set. Several times I had to stop and think about whether I found certain elements believable in 1885 or whether they didn’t seem more akin to 1970.

The Swann family saga is only one of several important English family sagas written by Delderfield, including The Horseman Riding By and To Serve Them All Our Days, both of which became popular BBC mini-series. This is a fascinating and outstanding novel about exciting times in economic and social development throughout Victorian England. The next novels in the series - - Theirs Was the Kingdom (Swann Family Saga) and Give Us This Day (God Is an Englishman) - - bring the younger Swanns into the business and they face the next challenges as the face of road freight transport changes from horse drawn to motorised delivery. Mr. Delderfield is English, talented, immensely industrious. No living novelist currently at work is so staunch and blithe a representative of an out moded style of writing fiction. A cheerful anachronism in the world of letters, Mr. Delder field writes with vigor, unceas ing narrative drive and a high degree of craftsmanship. At his best he may remind one of Troilope, at his worst of Hugh Walpole. Uneven, sometimes unconvincing, Mr. Delderfield is usually competent, usually entertaining and sometimes boring. He is a storyteller, which is no small thing to be. But he is not a novelist who can impose his vision of life upon his readers, who can cre ate characters so individual or so universal that they linger in the memory; whose own use of words and whose personality add an extra dimension to his work. Donald Horne: As I lay dying". The Weekend Australian Magazine. 22 September 2007 . Retrieved 14 June 2013.Horne was conferred with degrees honoris causa by a number of Australian academic institutions, including Griffith University (Doctor of the University), University of New South Wales ( Doctor of Letters), University of Canberra (Doctor of the University), the Australian Academy of the Humanities (Fellow), and the University of Sydney (Honorary Doctorate: 2005). [1] The great museum: the re-presentation of history. Leichhardt, New South Wales: Pluto Press. 1984. ISBN 978-0-86104-788-8.

It is a generalization to be sure, but today's literary novelists work with a much smaller scope than those of the past. The books are generally shorter, with a focus on fewer characters and on a less complex story. There are great exceptions, like Chabon's Kavalier and Klay, but overall, the focus is more on the intense examination of character. In light of these great spiritual realities, it’s no wonder that Paul is concerned that the church should be eager to maintain the “unity in the bond of peace” (4:3). Adam's freight hauling business had spread over 12 territories in England. Keate was in charge of training, hiring and paying the wagon drivers. His accountant was Andrew Tybalt. Tybalt was of immense help to the expansion of the business. Tybolt spent lots of time researching the area almanac's to discover the business owners and the type of freight they would need hauled in each area. This is a feminist novel for the 1970’s: it has strong, capable women, but they are more than willing to subjugate themselves if they can only find a man who is yet stronger and more capable. While Adam and Henrietta’s relationship is less passionate than that of the Poldarks, it has some interesting twists. I thought their wedding night was very well written: Henrietta naive but determined, and both of them pleasantly surprised. The childbirth scene, not so much - not sure the author had ever actually talked to anybody who had given birth.I want to start off by saying that this book took me a week to read but I loved every minute of it. I read a few smaller books in between, but I just adored spending so much time in Victorian England. I felt like I lived in Adam and Henrietta’s world and could understand their issues and problems but also cheer for them to push forward, move past whatever problems they were having, and succeed at everything. This is the kind of book that becomes a favorite, at least for me, because I love huge complex stories like this. This book is long, detailed and characterized by antiquated language and bygone references. It is also fascinating, engrossing and felt very authentic. I was glad I read it on my Kindle so that I could use the Oxford dictionary as I encountered unfamiliar words and usages. Maybe a British reader would have had fewer problems with these terms, unusual analogies and references? However, this challenge is one of the reasons I loved it!