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Speak for England by James Hawes
In Speak for England, Brian Marley is a divorced, ineffectual teacher of English as a foreign language. He volunteers for the ultimate reality show where he outlives the other contestants in a jungle in Papua New Guinea. When the helicopter that is supposed to bring him back to civilization crashes, it looks like the end for Marley. He is saved when he finds a lost civilization that is a recreation of an earlier England. They're survivors of an airplane full of English children that crashed in 1958, and they've grown up with a strict but fair headmaster and guided by Eagle annuals and The Book of Common Prayer. There's also a lovely woman named George. When this lost, idealized English society returns to modern England, a shock is in order for all involved. James Hawes' novel is a satire of modern life and values and Speak for England has received positive reviews. Scotland on Sunday says, "Even during the wincing, laughing and sometimes head-scratching confusion, you never want to stop turning the pages. Yes, the approach is undeniably scattershot and almost frustratingly random at times; but when each page is as funny, sophisticated and soul-wrenchingly accurate as this, to complain just wouldn't be cricket."
