As the song says - "There'll always be an England, While there's a country lane, Wherever there's a cottage small, Beside a field of grain." How I would love to travel these country lanes with this little book tucked under my arm. Who could possibly know all this about England and the English, apart from Christopher Winn! This book is a delightful potpourri of sorts that are - the oldest, the longest surviving, the only known, the first of, the most valuable or the biggest in either Britain and even occasionally the World. I thoroughly enjoyed reading my way through this alphabetical of England's counties, discovering the source of much that is hearsay, folklore and legend. I discovered the origin of many of today's sayings and read about an untold number of historic sites. I knew England was old, however, I was astonished to find so many buildings, pubs, churches, inventions and relics surviving today that are - still in use, have been in continuous use, are still owned by the same family or amazingly, just still standing, some, since before the Roman Times. It's an easy book to pick up and put down although I enjoyed reading it slowly, straight through. I shall be looking out for other, similar titles by the same author. ( )

A lot of the things I did know. ( )