I travelled from King's Cross to Berwick-on-Tweed in a sleeper on the night express for no other reason than that I like to read in bed and, at the same time, feel that I am being rushed forward at a tremendous speed.



In this series of pen-portraits of England, commissioned by The Daily Mail in the 1930s, Victor Canning vividly conjures the pattern and colour of the 'great fabric of English Life' from Cumberland to Cornwall. His heartwarming, humorous and often irreverent observations of sleepy villages, pastoral scenes and busy industries provide a delightful insight into life between the wars.