England My England

Anglophilia Explained

By: Mark Dery

Narrated by: Mark Ashby

Length: 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Downton Abbey has brought out the Anglophile in American fans of the hit TV series. But Anglophilia has a long history in America. Why are some native-born residents of our Shining City Upon a Hill, where All Men Are Created Equal, seduced by the fluting tones of manor-born privilege? At last, Anglophilia explained - in American, thank you.

©2013 Mark Dery (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Criticizing is Easy.

A nutless monkey could do it. The book description promised “savage & sympathetic” as well as “wryly funny.” I only heard savage & harshly critical. Paired with the performer’s nasal voice, it was neither interesting nor enjoyable. 😕 Kudos to the performer’s choice of obnoxious & strident intonation, which fit the prose.

Even at the price of FREE, not worth the time.

This is a bigoted, liberalist piece of garbage. I would not recommend this title to anyone at anyitme, anywhere. This is just a published manifesto of a sick, twisted and vile mind! DO NOT BOTHER!

Listened for 10 minutes

After 10 minutes I couldn't understand what the hell was this thing about and deleted it.

What was the point?

What the heck? This was a waste! I have no idea what the point of the essay was at all. What? I feel a bit upset I wasted 48 minutes of my time on this. Nothing was explained at all. Waste! Thank God I didn't pay for it.

Qualifies as my most irritating Audible purchase

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I guess people who think Anglophiles are snobbish, social climbing jerks might enjoy this book. Thankfully it was only 48 minutes long so I listened to the end. Certainly not what I expected.

Any additional comments?

If you love being an Anglophile then you can give this title a miss.

Hmmm...

Overall, I found the information in the book interesting. I just found that the information didn't come up in the most fascinating way.

Not so much...

Well that was a ho-hum 38 minutes of my life. The promise of our love of Downton Abbey explored just didn't happen and in the end, it was a lot of rambling about nothing. Watch Downton, love the Queen and ignore the book.

What was this? I couldn't tell.

What would have made England My England better?

The author of this piece did not make it clear what the work is supposed to be. Was it a parody of scholastic works? If so, it missed the mark completely. Was it actually supposed to be an analysis of American-based Anglophilia? If so, it missed the mark completely. Quite frankly, it was a thinly-veiled excuse to insult anyone that doesn't fit the author's narrow view of a "proper" Anglophile.

What could Mark Dery have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Mr. Dery could have made it better by simply getting off his high horse and actually addressing the subject. This would have preferably been done without continually insulting people who enjoy shows like Downton Abbey, or people who enjoy Renaissance Festivals, or people who enjoy the pomp and ceremony of events like royal weddings, or any number of other sub-groups of Americans. Oh, and actually including a clearly stated thesis and supporting it would be nice too.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Mark Ashby?

Mr. Ashby did the best job that he could with such drivel.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from England My England?

If I were the editor, it would not have made it to publication at all.

Any additional comments?

I was hoping that this would be a serious look at the phenomena of Anglophilia in the United States. I think that there is a lot to address on that subject, and it would be a fascinating study of how the history of the United States and its varying relationships with the United Kingdom have come influenced the modern American mind to create this pervasive fascination with both the reality and the perceived reality of the U.K.

Unfortunately, all that this ended up being was a rather incoherent and unorganized ramble through one man's memories of childhood punctuated with repeated barbs aimed at entire cross-sections of the population ranging from the far Right to the far Left. The end result being a wasted hour and the unsubstantiated inflation of ego for the author.

This was definitely an opportunity that was wasted by the author. It is a shame.

Kind of pointless

I got this as a freebie and thought it might be interesting. I was wrong. The great thing about it....it is only about 45 minutes. It is mainly comprised of someone sharing their obsession with England through various quotes from English works. Snore.

Failure to achieve objective.

There were enough positive Amazon reviews to overcome my skepticism from the negative reviews, and after all, it was free and less than an hour long. How much of a gamble could it be? More than you'd think.

I found this essay incoherently scattered, heavily dependent on comments from other authors, but failing to state a distinct thesis to build an argument on. The result was a failure to explain American Anglophilia, and what came across to me a general contempt of American fans of Masterpiece and BBC America. Not the fun I had hoped it would be.