Rule Britannia

One of Daphne du Maurier's lesser-known books, Rule Britannia envisages an alternate history of England in the 1970s. In this alternate universe, plunged into economic depression and soaring unemployment, England decides not to join the European Economic Community (forerunner to the European Union). Its residents wake up one day to find communications cut, an American warship in the harbour, US marines setting up roadblocks and news that Britain was joining forces with the United States to form the USUK. A group of Cornish villagers becomes increasingly unhappy with the take-over of their land and start a shadowy rebellion, centring on an 80-year-old former actress, his brood of adopted troubled boys and her neighbours. The story is told through the eyes of her 20-year-old grand-daughter. A fascinating read.

The premise of the United States "helping out" another country by invading them isn't new, but since we're invading somebody at the moment, I found this book timely. There is much symbolism here that could easily be overlooked if you were inclined to read it too quickly. From time to time, I found myself going back to re-read a particular passage, just because it was so wickedly funny. Some of it almost begs to be read out loud. For instance, the combined nation of the United States and the United Kingdom is referred to as USUK. (read as You Suck.) Stuff like that kept me laughing. There's also a description of a cake being sliced and served "like Shylock's pound of flesh" that is hysterical. This novel was the first satire I've read by duMaurier. I usually associate her with chilling stories that don't quite resolve and leave the reader feeling a little creepy. While I don't think this is her best, I do think it's heads above virtually anything being written today in fiction and that this book is one that could be read a few times and still be enjoyable. duMaurier uses words that well.

After reading The Scapegoat, and The Flight of the Falcon, set in France and Italy respectively, it is good to be back on familiar Cornish ground with this good-humored yet pointed and poignant work. However, Travanel and its inhabitants are a world removed from the Gothic romance of Manderley or Jamaica Inn. This, Du Maurier's final novel, comes across more as an Orwellian style cautionary tale set in Stella Gibbon's Cold Comfort Farm. While her usual bounds of propriety are never overstepped, she doesn't shrink away from the occasional vulgarity; the bits where the youngest boys in the adopted family are learning to use profanities by way of faltering Spoonerisms are actually charming; and the acronym for the United States teamed with the United Kingdom - USUK - has been appropriated as an epithet by a younger generation(at least in America). Though the mood of hi jinks and good humor is maintained throughout the novel, many serious ethical and political issues are touched upon. It's a pity that this very enjoyable, extremely well-written, and still quite topical book isn't better known!