THE SECRETS OF ENGLISHNESS

I’ve finished my ‘English’ book and it would seem that we are a seething mass of contradictions (or hypocrisy depending on how kind you’re feeling). We are fiercely private, yet desperately nosey, stumbling around under a cloud of slightly autistic social ineptitude, always grumbling yet never actually doing anything about it because we don’t like to make a fuss or to draw attention to ourselves. We have an in-built sense of class consciousness too and are therefore quite judgemental and we are forever saying ‘sorry’ and minding our ‘Ps and Qs’ (although not necessarily genuinely). We are masters of the art of understatement ‘a bit of a nuisance’ translates as ‘a complete pest/absolutely debilitating’. ‘A sort of curiously sunny pessimism’ as the author puts it at one point. Yet we are saved by some redeeming qualities like our sense of fair play and our humour (not necessarily funny) which are the constant undercurrents of our daily lives. However, I didn’t feel depressed by this book. On the contrary, I think it demonstrates our innate human-ness. And actually once you get past our defensive, awkward shell, we are really quite charming and amusing and indeed lovable.

The English Genome according to Kate Fox