cover image My Love Affair with England

My Love Affair with England

Susan Allen Toth. Ballantine Books, $18 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-345-37725-8

Toth ( Blooming ) makes no apologies here for her lack of authority about English history or current affairs; she is not ashamed to admit that she has ventured little beyond literary London and England's most picturesque locales; and she disdains what she calls the ``Bleak Chic''11 school of British travel writing. But then, this is not a travel memoir in the modern sense, fashioned for hardened realists. Without a trace of irony, Toth writes of the ``lure of England's many-layered past''23 and the reverence felt by every English major, present or former, when walking down streets well known to Dickens. She is spot-on in explaining why English marmalade tastes good only when eaten as part of a real English breakfast--``the tangy flavor puts just the right edge on a slathery, swimming-in-fat breakfast of bacon, sausage and fried eggs.''73 Toth's descriptive powers and her almost Victorian sense of sentiment occasionally wear thin, especially in the sections where she deals with her recent visits. But she is in top form when she recounts her travels as a Smith student in 1960 and 10 years later as a harried guide for touring students. At these and many other points, the book feels wonderfully cozy--the print equivalent of a nice cup of tea. (Oct.)