Icons of England

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[And, because this is the sort of forum it is, here's a few writers that sum up the essence of englishness (in it's many guises): DH Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling (I know where he was born, but still...), Charles Dickens, Jane Austin & John Fowles. (There are many others, but I tried to keep to well known names and selected on the grounds of their 'englishness quotient' before all else.)

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These are good suggestions! One thing about Fowles’ "The Collector" that is strikingly English is the brilliant way he deals with the class difference between Miranda and Clegg – class being a very important component of English society.

I was trying to think of a comparable example in very recent English fiction but could only think of Zadie Smith’s "White Teeth" – I think that also recognizes the subtleties of class differences, but there are probably other examples.

As steak and kidney pie isn't up there, I'd go for Jerusalem - not because I think it's a good poem, but because it combines the fanciful,the realistic, the liberal, the romantic, the humble, the arrogant and the creative in a way that pretty much sums up what I like about the English. Though frankly, I'd rather have been born Dutch.

A pint of beer at room temperature in a country pub accompanied by a ploughman's lunch & the Sunday paper tome.

A pickled onion with the fish & chips.

The banter of a London Taxi driver (cabbie)

you see... i wouldnt associate tea with England because we drink more tea per capita over here. Stonehenge, Jerusalem, punch and judy, Angel of the north and Alice in Wonderland are my selections. I would have gone with black cabs and victorian sea side resorts as Icons too.

I voted cup of tea, Alice in Wonderland, Spitfire, and the FA cup (I only know what it is because my Dad watches it). A couple of the things on the list I've never even heard of, and some obvious ones seem to be missing. Where's Admiral Nelson? Winston Churchill? Or maybe these men are not seen as so "typically" English by people who actually are English?
What I think would be interesting would be a list complied by people who consider themselves English compared to a list written by non-English.

Well, I'm English

1 Village cricket (played on the village green, with thatched cottages, the mellow stone manor, the mediaeval church, the old coaching inn pub serving proper beer (after the game,) and rooks coming to roost in the elms that cast their shadows over the field in the early evening sun.

2 the old coaching inn pub serving proper beer

3 proper beer

4 Punch & Judy and donkey rides on the sands

5 rows and rows of Victorian terraced houses

6 blocks and blocks of sixties flats

7 The Authorized Version of the Bible (known as the King James' Version to non-English, and maybe to those English who are too young ever to have known it in use.)

8 Vindaloo

9 Winning without conceit and losing without rancour - all right 'If'

10 Green. England is the only country in the world that is painted in the right shade of green.

And I'll grant you fishnchips, Nelson and Churchill. Maybe Oxford and Cambridge. Political asylum. oh, the list goes on.

Whifflingpin, you forgot queueing :D

No - I associate queueing with the French and the Russians, more than the English.

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Originally Posted by TheFifthElement

Whifflingpin, you forgot queueing :D

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I've never seen queues quite like those in England. :D dont know how you all do it! we get frustrated over here if there are two people ahead of us in the queue! :p

...I think this about sums it up.

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Originally Posted by Virgil

I agree with almost everyone who pointed out the deficiencies. Here's some more: The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Queens Victoria and Elizabeth, the first of course, Trafalgar Square and Duke of Wellington, conqueror of Napoleon, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Blake, King Henry V (the actual King, not the play), and of course the person who started it all, William the Conqueror.

And then the geography too: The English Channel, the Lake District.

And the old institutions: Oxford, Cambridge, Parliament.

And how we Americans learn about the English, British humor: Monty Python, Benny Hill, etc.

I think I'll protest the list and not vote.

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Yikes, no wonder I had not voted! I had protested! :lol: Well I voted now and I would have maintained my protest to not vote if I had caught my original post.

Someone must have mentioned Shakespeare, because I surely would have listed him, and probably Milton's Paradise Lost should be included as well. I'm actually surprised that the King James Bible has gotten so few votes. Historically it's probably been the most widely read book by english speaking readers. Which brings to mind, another extremely widely read book that is an English icon, The Book of Common Prayer, first published in 1549.

The Queues! of course, thats the one.

There has been alot about Dunkirk recently on tv, pictures of British soldiers desperately fleeing for their lives by queueing up in an orderly fashion on the beaches. Sort of sums us up.

I voted
Stonehenge for it representation of our pre-historic past.
King James Bible as it says a lot about our history, protestantism and the English language.
Jerusalem as it shows patriotism, sarcasm and it makes me think of churches and the innate sort of middle class hat wearing respectability.
Last but not least SS Windrush as the migration of people from our former empire came to England and changed it into the multicultural melting pot that we have today. Without that modern England would be completely different.

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Originally Posted by Fen

Jerusalem as it shows patriotism, sarcasm and it makes me think of churches and the innate sort of middle class hat wearing respectability.

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Really? I always associate Jerusalem with drunken football hooligans.

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Originally Posted by TheFifthElement

Really? I always associate Jerusalem with drunken football hooligans.

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I didn't know it was a crowd favourite. I heard it was the sort of thing people liked at their weddings hence the hat wearing.