Peter said : Good fortune smiles on this once curmudgeonly country . ` ` I was quite hopeful that something would go marvelously wrong in the British Empire . '' Commentators opined on page after page that Britain had entered a new era , he said .
Peter Wilkinson : Good will descended on this once curmudgeonly isle . `` I was quite hopeful that something would go marvelously wrong in the British tradition . '' Commentators opined on page after page that Britain had entered a new era , he said .