How England Made The English: From Hedgerows To Heathrow
by Harry Mount /
2012 / English / EPUB
15.6 MB Download
Harry Mount's How England Made the English: From Why We Drive on
the Left to Why We Don't Talk to Our Neighbours is packed with
astonishing facts and wonderful stories. Q. Why are English train
seats so narrow? A. It's all the Romans' fault. The first Victorian
trains were built to the same width as horse-drawn wagons; and they
were designed to fit the ruts left in the roads by Roman chariots.
For readers of Paxman's The English, Bryson's Notes on a Small
Island and Fox's Watching the English, this intriguing and witty
book explains how our national characteristics - our sense of
humour, our hobbies, our favourite foods and our behaviour with the
opposite sex - are all defined by our nation's extraordinary
geography, geology, climate and weather. You will learn how we
would be as freezing cold as Siberia without the Gulf Stream; why
we drive on the left-hand side of the road; why the Midlands became
the home of the British curry. It identifies the materials that
make England, too: the faint pink Aberdeen granite of kerbstones;
that precise English mix of air temperature, smell and light that
hits you the moment you touch down at Heathrow. Praise for Harry
Mount: 'Highly readable, encyclopeadic, marvellous, illuminating.
Mount portrays England via dextrous excavations of its geography,
geology, history and weather' Independent 'Fascinating. Mount's an
intelligent, funny and always interesting companion' Daily Mail
'Charming and nerdily fact-stuffed' Guardian Harry Mount is the
author of Amo, Amas, Amat and All That, his best-selling book on
Latin, and A Lust for Window Sills - A Guide to British Buildings.
A journalist for many newspapers and magazines, he has been a New
York correspondent and a leader writer for the Daily Telegraph. He
studied classics and history at Oxford, and architectural history
at the Courtauld Institute. He lives in north London
Harry Mount's How England Made the English: From Why We Drive on
the Left to Why We Don't Talk to Our Neighbours is packed with
astonishing facts and wonderful stories. Q. Why are English train
seats so narrow? A. It's all the Romans' fault. The first Victorian
trains were built to the same width as horse-drawn wagons; and they
were designed to fit the ruts left in the roads by Roman chariots.
For readers of Paxman's The English, Bryson's Notes on a Small
Island and Fox's Watching the English, this intriguing and witty
book explains how our national characteristics - our sense of
humour, our hobbies, our favourite foods and our behaviour with the
opposite sex - are all defined by our nation's extraordinary
geography, geology, climate and weather. You will learn how we
would be as freezing cold as Siberia without the Gulf Stream; why
we drive on the left-hand side of the road; why the Midlands became
the home of the British curry. It identifies the materials that
make England, too: the faint pink Aberdeen granite of kerbstones;
that precise English mix of air temperature, smell and light that
hits you the moment you touch down at Heathrow. Praise for Harry
Mount: 'Highly readable, encyclopeadic, marvellous, illuminating.
Mount portrays England via dextrous excavations of its geography,
geology, history and weather' Independent 'Fascinating. Mount's an
intelligent, funny and always interesting companion' Daily Mail
'Charming and nerdily fact-stuffed' Guardian Harry Mount is the
author of Amo, Amas, Amat and All That, his best-selling book on
Latin, and A Lust for Window Sills - A Guide to British Buildings.
A journalist for many newspapers and magazines, he has been a New
York correspondent and a leader writer for the Daily Telegraph. He
studied classics and history at Oxford, and architectural history
at the Courtauld Institute. He lives in north London