England Rents, Rants, & Raves

Rita’s husband, whose nickname was Fatty, was always charming and treated his mother-in-law most royally whenever she visited Libya. My Aunt...

Aunt May, another of Mum’s sisters, was telling everyone about her most recent visit to North Africa. Her daughter, my cousin Rita, had elop...

Mum watched the end of her show and then we ate dinner, now mostly cold. Roast lamb, mint sauce, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and Brus...

Just discovered a wonderful start-up magazine that’s right up our street. It’s called UK:Cue Magazine and it’s edited by a charming Anglophi...

My new Christmas pudding is happily imbibing as I write, happily awaiting the big day. Here is a photo of last year's, before we doused ...

Until the middle of the twentieth century many East Enders, and those who lived south of the river, in the poorer boroughs of London, went h...

Prodigal Wife and I have discovered Doc Martin, a quirky Brit show about a surgeon who can't stand the sight of blood so he takes over a...

A gnarly old lemon-colored rose tree gripped a rotting trellis, fighting its way clear of the laburnum. The standard roses, of which there w...

Somerset Maugham renamed Whitstable "Blackstable" in one of his first novels. He had grown up there and hated the place. I sort of...

"Oh, Philip, are you sure there's no other way to pay for this wedding? And, really, couldn't I at least go to the other one, y...

I literally threw the book in the corner of the room. Frustrated, angry, and very annoyed. After a few moments, when my seethe had come off ...

I love this old photo we found of Viking Bay in Broadstairs, my favorite English coastal town. Straight ahead is the Albion Hotel, where Dic...

Well! It's been a year since publication of A Yank Back To England, and it has been quite exciting. I've done over thirty book readi...

Admittedly, as many of you know, we are a "mixed" family; but nevertheless Christmas is our favorite time of the year--and my favo...

With its huge fins and tail lights, Cy's baby blue Ford Galaxy convertible looked like a relic from either an alien planet junk yard or ...

In the pale gold of the following afternoon we took a stroll in the neighborhood beyond the shopping hordes on the Brompton Road, towards Ha...

"It's lovely," Lew was now fulsome with praise as he slurped down his tea. "I like a bit of sweet," Mum went on, ign...

Anyone interested in following in the Prodigal Footsteps might be interested in renting this little (well, large) barn in Suffolk, not far f...

I'm the first to admit that it is hard to find an English main course recipe that doesn't start with "take half a pound of lard...

Many of you have, very oddly it seems to me, expressed a desire to visit Dagenham after reading A Yank Back to England. Well, this one's...

All children think their parents are old, but mine always were, exceptionally so. Obviously, they weren’t born old, but they were old when I...

I confess, we were too lazy to pull out our lovely roulette wheel this time, so we used random.org to determine the winners of the Todd Char...

We here in the Prodigal Household are big fans of mysteries, as many of you know, and we always have our eyes peeled for a good one! Now, wi...

"You’re a long way from home,” said Frances to a woman vendor. A Gaelic shrug of the mouth. “Wiz ze toon-el... iz no problem.” We had ...

When the weather heats up, my thoughts turn to languid summers and strawberries and cream and... Eton Mess! The dish was invented by the ...

We found this wonderful old photo of The Pantiles in Royal Tunbridge Wells, once the retreat of choice of the English upper-crust under the ...

I moved a little closer. "Everything alright, gel?" Lew sounded loud and happy. Yes, yes of course it was. Mary was having a good ...

The hubbub of the pub was pleasant and, seeping through it, I heard "Roll out the Barrel" from across the bar. Lew was merrily sin...

When I was about thirteen, I wanted to be a missionary. I tried to convert my friends and teachers at school. I prayed for Jessie and Lew. F...

Prodigal Wife found this beautiful photo of Rye at PublicDomainePictures.net , and it made me grin like a happy giraffe! At the end of the s...