A review of an amateur production in Thursley, printed in The Times in January 1930, notes that he played his role with "immense gusto" which was "vastly to the taste of the audience". He also glances disapprovingly at colonialism, both internal and external, as he berates a nation that has lost its sense of diplomatic purpose. Macdonell also wrote six mystery novels under the name 'Neil Gordon', one of them in collaboration with Milward Kennedy. Although the rest of his books have been largely forgotten, several of them earned accolades during his lifetime. Subversively, against this Macdonnell places “bright young things” who are still partying, still determinedly having fun as a reaction to the deaths of the Great War.

Minus points: the book is of its time so not particularly enlightened or PC - to be avoided if you are easily upset. Set in 1920s England, the book takes the form of a travel memoir by a young Scotsman who has been invalided away from the Western Front, "Donald Cameron", whose father's will forces him to reside in England.Chapters on cricket, the Geneva of the League of Nations, fox-hunting, golf, country-house parties, politics and so on are described by appealing young Scottish war veteran Donald Cameron. All of these are stereotypes but utterly identifiable as English in a specific time-and-place; this book is now, almost, a Sociological treatise. England, Their England is an affectionately satirical inter-war comic novel first published in 1933. The independent-minded quarterly magazine that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach.

It would be easy to make modern day political parallels (in fact I think it was in this context this novel was mentioned, come to think of it) but there is a lot of English exceptionalism throughout the book, with the jokes on them: the majors who believe India should be run by them and the golf club members who are swindled by a Scot who plays up his roots with a comedy brogue. The first chapter (which is set in France in WW1) is excellent, genuine satire and I only wish it carried on in this vein. With many sparkling comic moments, this book somehow manages to combine brilliant satire with warmth, even sentimentality.Slightly Foxed brings back forgotten voices through its Slightly Foxed and Plain Foxed Editions, a series of beautifully produced little pocket hardback reissues of classic memoirs, all of them absorbing and highly individual. Of these, I'm afraid I didn't find the cricket match nearly as funny as it's cracked up to be, but the comments on, for example, schools of novelists or the pretentiousness of modern theatre were much more amusing.