Englishman in New York

Sometimes the New York Times’ London correspondent Sarah Lyall really makes me homesick. Here’s an excerpt from her latest report on the much-maligned town of Slough:

The town is close to London, and has a $5 billion economy, one of Europe’s largest industrial parks and companies like Black & Decker, Amazon and Computer Associates. Because it is such a magnet for business, “people see it as a symbol for modern life” — one conveniently located next to three major highways, said Rob Anderson, a borough council member.

“We don’t do wisteria around the door and quaint little cottages,” he said. “If you want to go on holiday, go to Windsor. If you want to make money, come to Slough.”

The local government recently announced plans to spend $800 million to transform Slough’s tired downtown in the next decade. That could not come soon enough for 69-year-old Jim Hall, sipping a pint of lager in the March drizzle outside the Moon and Spoon pub, at a busy intersection in the center of town.

“It’s an ugly place, isn’t it?” he said, speaking above the din of the traffic and gesturing down the street, with its preponderance of concrete buildings. In the distance loomed the Brunel bus station and parking garage, Slough’s most prominent landmark.

Mr. Hall said that people in Slough are no more unhappy than people elsewhere in Britain. “I think people like to moan sometimes for the sake of it,” he said. “I don’t know why they bother, sometimes — nobody listens.”

Emma Cornelius, 36, who works for an American communications company in Slough, said that geographic satisfaction was all relative.

“If you had a choice of Slough or anywhere else in the area, Slough would be the last town you’d come to,” she said. “But compared to Watford, it’s fabulous.”

Or, as 16-year-old Diane Cotterell said: “It’s not the worst place in Britain; there are worse places, like Liverpool.”

Darren Hipkin, 30, a co-worker of Ms. Cornelius, said that while Slough’s downtown was slightly downtrodden, the atmosphere hardly joyous, its residents suffered merely from the things that other Britons did — “the economy, the taxes, this and that, you seem to be earning less and spending more.”

Actually, given the realities of the world, he said, he sometimes found himself perplexed, even annoyed, by the relentless enthusiasm of his American colleagues. “They get on the phone and say, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ ” he said, putting on a peppy voice. “You think, ‘Hang on, it’s Monday morning — I just got up.’ ”