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 &, at the same time, feel that I am being rushed forward at a tremendous speed. In this series of pen-portraits of Engl&, commissioned by ” The Daily Mail” in the 1930s, Victor Canning vividly conjures the pattern & colour of the `great fabric of English Life` from Cumberland to Cornwall. His heartwarming, humorous & often irreverent observations of sleepy villages, pastoral scenes & busy industries provide a delightful insight into life between the wars.