WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE IN ENGLAND? Quadrangle/The New York

by Mary Spooner Cherry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1974

The author and her husband chose to retire to England because, she claims, it's a nation of music lovers (?) and they can attend several concerts a week at minimal cost. Whatever your reasons for considering living there permanently, this book is big on minutiae and thoroughy unrealistic on some very important basics. Cherry discusses, often in pettifogging detail, British taxes as they affect retirees, insurance, requirements for citizenship, transport systems, bank accounts, credit cards, medical services, purchasing a car, buying a house, and shipping your pet (he'll be put in quarantine for six months) and, if you should die there,--shipping a body back to the U.S. A rather prissy Anglophile, she likes the English because they're courteous and because she admires ""the sort of people that can withstand a blitz."" She lists climate as the chief disadvantage of domicile in England--ignoring entirely such things as petrol shortages, unemployment, mounting strikes, possible curtailments of essential services and the generally grim economic prospect. Some of the advice given--not to give ""key money"" for a London flat--is preposterous since people are so desperate to get unfurnished apartments that they're forking over 500 to 2000 pounds. Full of particulars, but with little overall perspective.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Times Book Co

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION