PREFACE
T HE E NGLISH are a remarkable and singular people. They owe much to being an island race and much to the beauty and landscape of their island. They owe much to all those who have settled in England and fallen in love with this uncommon land. Celts, Romans, Jutes, Angles, Saxons, Danes, Jews, Normans, Huguenots, Flemings and Walloons the English have borrowed something from all these peoples, and have forged the disparate elements together in a very English way, be it in language, customs, identity or character.
In return the English have given much back. The English language, the language of Shakespeare, more widely spoken than any other, Parliamentary democracy, the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried, according to Winston Churchill, cricket, football, rugby, the Industrial Revolution, railways, the pub, the class system, Georgian architecture, Alice in Wonderland, afternoon tea.
This book travels to every corner of England to discover the people and the flavour that each has contributed to England and the English. You cannot pin down or define the English, you can only listen to their stories, learn something of their ways and enjoy the experience.
I Never Knew That About The English
Christopher Winn
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
Mai Osawa
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Published in 2008 by Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing
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Text Christopher Winn 2008
Illustrations Mai Osawa 2008
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For Uncle Peter
THE ENGLISH COUNTIES
T HE E NGLISH CHARACTER is defined by county as much as by anything. A Yorkshireman is instantly recognisable from a Cornishman, a Geordie from a Man of Kent, by accent, by outlook, by appearance.
Hence, I Never Knew That About the English is divided into the 39 historic English counties and the Vale of the White Horse counties that come down to us from the dawn of England, that have moulded their inhabitants, conferred distinctive characteristics and blessings upon them, presented them with different challenges and loyalties.
The story of the English people is intertwined with the English counties, and the bureaucrats have sought in vain to separate them. I would not dare to try nor would I wish to.
Index of People
The following items may be used as a guide to search for information in the eBook.
Abrahams, Harold ()
Acres, Birt ()
Adam, John ()
Adams, William ()
Addison, Joseph ()
Aethelred, King ()
Airedale Terrier ()
Airey, Sir George ()
Alan a Dale ()
Alfred the Great ()
Alwyn, William ()
Amundsen, Roald ()
Arch, Joseph ()
Arden, Mary ()
Arkwright, Sir Richard ()
Arnold, Malcolm ()
Arnold, Matthew ()
Arnold, Thomas ()
Arthur, King ()
Arthur, Prince ()
Ashcroft, Dame Peggy ()
Ashley-Cooper, Anthony ()
Ashmole, Elias ()
Aspdin, Joseph ()
Astell, Mary ()
Astley, Philip ()
Athelstan, King ()
Atkinson, Rowan ()
Atomic Kitten ()
Attenborough, Sir Richard ()
Austen, Edward ()
Austen, Jane ()
Austin, Alfred ()
Austin, Herbert ()
Ayckbourn, Sir Alan ()
Ayers, Sir Henry ()
Babington, Anthony ()
Bacon, Francis ()
Bagnold, Enid ()
Baker, Sir Benjamin ()
Bakewell, Robert ()
Balchin, Nigel ()
Baldwin, Stanley ()
Bannister, Roger ()
Barker, Ronnie ()
Barker, Will ()
Barratt Browning, Elizabeth ()
Barraud, Francis James ()
Barrow, Sir John ()
Barry, John ()
Bates, H. E. ()
Battleship ()
Baxter, Raymond ()
Beatles ()
Beaumont, Guillaume ()
Becher, Captain Martin ()
Bede, Venerable ()
Bedford, Anna Duchess of ()
Bedford, Duke of ()
Beeching, Dr ()
Bell, Vanessa ()
Bellingham, Alan ()
Belloc, Hilaire ()
Benson, E. F. ()
Berkeley, Lennox ()
Berkeley, Lord ()
Berry, Agnes ()
Berry, Sir John (Jack Hobbs) ()
Bessemer, Sir Henry ()
Betjemen, Sir John ()
Billy J Kramer ()
Binet, Alfred ()
Binyon, Laurence ()
Black, Cilla ()
Black Prince ()
Blake, William ()
Blashford-Snell, John ()
Blunt, Anthony ()
Boadicea, Queen ()
Bogart, Humphrey ()
Bonaparte, Lucien ()
Bondfield, Margaret ()
Boole, George ()
Booth, John Wilkes ()
Boothby, Thomas ()
Borough, Stephen ()
Botham, Ian ()
Bradley, William ()
Bradman, Don ()
Bragg, Melvyn ()
Breakspear, Nicholas ()
Brewer, Revd Dr Ebenezer ()
Brewster, William ()
Brindley, James ()
Brine, James ()
Britten, Sir Benjamin ()
Brocket, Lord ()
Brocklebank, Daniel ()
Bron, Eleanor ()
Bronte, Anne ()
