Rating: 
Summary: Joyous Memories
Review: This book brought back so many pleasant memories. The author and I are the same age and experienced our first trips to England a year apart. Her descriptions and adventures are right on target. The disclosure that Brits are helpful and friendly is so true. Finding that they will go out of their way to assist you is exactly what my family and I discovered. I cannot compete with the number of visits (only 6 so far) but have covered much of the same ground. You can see and smell the gardens she describes so beautifully. One can feel the earth beneath ones feet as she wanders the many footpaths available in England. Adjusting or not to inconveniences comes off as amusing and tolerable. Along with experiences she interjects more than a smattering of English History. This book makes you want to hop on the next plane and begin wandering that lovely and historic isle.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely
Review: This is a book to sip with your tea. If you like England, you will love this account of such a glorious landscape and its people. On certain days, I miss England a lot, and when I do I pull out my copy of this book and return instantly.
Rating: 
Summary: A very personal book.
Review: This is a lovely, personal account of the author's many trips to England. But this is not just a travelogue -- I would not recommend it for planning your trip. (I always like maps and pictures in my travel books, and there are neither here.) In fact, it's less a travel book than a peek at her very personal diary, looking at England from a unique, gentle and fun perspective as she talked about herself, her marriages, and her family. MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH ENGLAND made me very much want to go see the England she described. She obviously loves the place. My favorite part: the footpaths! After this, I plan to read her other books on England, too.
Rating:
Summary: My Love Affair With England: A Traveler's Memoir
Review: This is a must read before traveling to England! Or even better, read it while you travel though England. She brings the country to life.
Rating:
Summary: My Love Affair With England: A Traveler's Memoir
Review: This is a must read before traveling to England! Or even better, read it while you travel though England. She brings the country to life.
Rating:
Summary: M.F.K. Fisher endorsed this book....
Review: When I read Toth's book, I had not yet read M.F.K. Fisher. Fisher's endorsement of this book is on the cover, and that makes sense to me as there are similarities in their writing styles. Toth has written many articles on her travels in England. She has compiled this information into a number of books. Some the books concentrate on a particular location in Englan -- as she puts it one that fits under your thumbnail when you hold it to a map. This book is a distillation of her various trips to England between 1963 and the early 1990's. Ms. Toth writes autobiographically, sharing her ups and downs. I've learned to listen to what she suggests. Probably the most important chapter in the book, "1984-1992, On the Sunny (If Wrong) Side of the Street--travels with James" tells about life in the fast lane, or wrong lane from the American perspective. A couple of decades ago my husband and I made our first trip to England together (I hadn't read Toth then) and we rented a car. I will never forget our arrival in Bath where my husband jumped out of the car and handed the attendent a 10 pound note to drive it 20 feet and park it. This followed a day of his learning how to negotiate roundabouts and driving on the wrong side of the road while I navigated, the hedgerow slapped the mirror an my side, and I screamed in fear. It was 10 years before we could laugh about our first driving trip in England and we took trains, cabs and buses for a long while, but finally mastered the road only to discover the enormous increase in traffic has made much of southern Engand like LA at rush hour. On my last trip, I went back to subways and trains. If you are a very nervous person or this is your first trip don't rent a car. I enjoyed all the chapters, but I liked the "Among the Alchemillas" best because I've learned Ms Toth knows where to go to find the best gardens. It's not enough to buy a book that lists all 10,000 gardens. I want someone to tell me what they found. As Ms. Toth points out, the English have a different idea of what constitutes a garden. I have followed her footsteps more than once and been rewarded.
| 
