Englishness

At the moment I am reading a book called "Watching the English: The hidden rules if English behaviour" by Kate Fox.

It's a great book and I'd recommend it to anybody. It's well written, amusing, and, for the English out there, cringeworthingly accurate.

I'd like to share a little excerpt with you that I found particularly insightful.

"Even on the rare occasions when we [the English] are roused to passionate dispute, we usually end up with a compromise. The English Civil War was fought between supporters of the monarchy and supporters of Parliament-and what did we end up with? Well, er, both. We are not keen on dramatic change, revolutions, sudden uprisings and upheavals. A truly English protest march would see us all chanting; 'What do we want? GRADUAL CHANGE ! When do we want it? IN DUE COURSE!'"

Perhaps I should apologise to Ms Fox about blatant breach of copyright and downright cheek for reprinting her work here without permission. But, I figure, if she's as English as defined in her book, she's more likely to have a moan about it to her friends, than contact me.