'England, My England' is set in the years before the Great War of 1914, seen by some as an idyllic time of sunshine and peace before everything was shattered by the mechanised war of 1914 to 1918. The family are placed in an idealised setting, deep in the English countryside but there are snakes in this Garden of Eden. There is conflict between man and woman, brought to the fore by an accident to a child and there is the seeming purposeless life led by the husband. The story ripples with the eugenic theories popular at the time yet the conflicts are finally solved by the horror of the war.