English Hours is an affectionate portrait, warts and all, of the country that was to become Henry James's adopted homeland. One of the great travel writers of his time, James takes the reader on a series of visits, ranging from Winchelsea to Warwick, taking in abbeys and castles, sea-fronts and race-courses. His sense of the past is as strong as his extraordinary ability to evoke the present — the light and air of Woolwich, or London in the fog — something no one could ever mind as much again after reading this book.