Forever England: North and South

Based on a British TV series, English novelist Bainbridge's chatty group portrait of six English families--three from the North, three from the South--offers an unvarnished look at how ordinary English folks live, work and plan for the future. Her spin on the North/South dichotomy that still haunts England may come as a revelation to American readers unaware that England has its own cultural Mason-Dixon Line. Northerners, Bainbridge explains, display a grit and belligerence born of hard times and local customs; in contrast, soft-spoken Southerners exhibit a detached complacency, are more affluent and less preoccupied with regional roots. Furthermore, many Northerners feel they've had a raw deal, losing brains, talent and money to London and the South. A long-time Londoner, Bainbridge grew up in Liverpool and exhibits much ambivalence toward the old working communities of the North, especially toward what she perceives as a narrowness of outlook and lack of expectation. Half the book consists of her own nostalgic autobiographical reminiscences, recalling her fervent socialist father and thrifty, apolitical mother, her acting experience, early marriage and exodus from Liverpool. Writing with the gimlet wit and sharp eye familiar to readers of her novels (The Birthday Boys, etc.), Bainbridge gets her subjects to bare their souls as they cope with cramped living quarters, joblessness, mortgages and life's various traumas. (July)