England
General information
- Title: England
- Author: John Escott
- Main works
With Oxford University Press, John Escott, has published London for the Oxford Bookworms Factfiles series; Agatha Christie, Woman of Mystery, Star Reporter, Girl on a Motorbike, The Fly and Other Horror Stories and the Scarlet Letter for Magician, Time for a Robbery, Star for a day, Tomorrow’s Girl and The Man with Three Names for the Hotshot Puzzles series and A Pretty Face for the Dominoes series.
Subgenre: factfiles
Setting: England (London, Liverpool, Manchester . . .)
The author: John Escott
John Escott is an author who worked in business before becoming a writer. He has written many books for readers of all ages: he started writing books for children and comic scripts, but now he writes and adapts books for students. He especially enjoys writing crime and mystery thrillers and is a member of the British Crime Writers Association. He was born in Somerset, in the west of England, but now lives in Bournemouth in the south. His favourite part of England is the Dorset coast. When he is not working, he likes looking for long-forgotten books in small bookshops, watching old films and walking along empty beaches. He has visited many different places in England, his favourite city is Bath, because of its fine buildings and its beautiful location. He has written or retold more than twenty stories for Oxford Bookworms for all the stages and he has written for the Oxford Dominoes series too. In the Stage 1, John Escott wrote also London and New York.
The book
In the book “England”, the author John Escott describes England from many points of view. History, places of interest, traditional festivals, sports and fashion are just a few topics the author talks about in the book. The name England comes from “Angle – land”. The Angle and the Saxon people came here from Europe in the fifth and sixth centuries and they called it Angle – land. Before them, the Romans lived here for about four hundreds years. They made houses and roads. And they made a town next to the River Thames and called it Londinium. Now its name is London. Today, twenty-five million people come to England every year, and some never go out of London. London has more than eleven million visitors every year. They visit some of the most famous buildings in London: the Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. Buckingham Palace is the Queen’s home in London. England is full of interesting places to visit and things to do. There are big noisy cities with great shops and theatres. Birmingham is England’s biggest city after London. But there are quiet little villages too. You can visit old castles and churches or go to festivals with music. In Liverpool you can visit the “Liverpool Cathedral” at St James Mount; it is one of England’s biggest churches. More than two million visitors watch the Notting Hill Carnival in London, on the last Sunday and Monday in August. You can have the great English breakfast or an English afternoon tea, walk on long white beaches, watch a great game of football or visit a country house. England is famous for sports too. In the chapter 8: “From football to tennis”, John Escott talks about sports in England, precisely: football, rugby, cricket and tennis. The game of cricket began in England and, for runners, two important races are the London Marathon in April and the Great North Run in June.
My personal comment
I think this book is interesting but also engaging because it describes the English world in all its features and the reader can imagine to visit England. In my opinion, this book is simple to read but it gives us a lot of information about England. The chapter that fascinated me most is the second one: “Who are the English?”, that talks about history of England and the origins of the English people. I enjoyed reading this chapter of the book because it describes in simple and, at the same time, precise way the phases of English history from the ancient times to the modern times. In the book, what fascinated me most, is that the author John Escott puts the reader at the centre of the description, so he can make reading interesting and enjoyable. Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and I recommend its reading.
