The English 'bobby', a symbol of England
1. LOVE FOR TRADITION
Let's see, we are talking about a country where the judges still wear a wig . The country of the inch, the foot, the mile, the pint, the pound, the yard, the acre. The country capable of making God save the Queen a punk anthem. A country in which a television series (Doctor Who) has been on the air for fifty years and is in better health than ever. ** A country where traditions are so powerful that they can be laughed at ** .
two. THE NEW GASTRONOMY
How do you hear it? Gone are the times of mushy peas and the ubiquitous mint sauces . Or not so far back, but now they are not the only option. Star chefs, trendsetting restaurants, quality fast food and fusion since before fusion existed are reasons to approach England with fattening intentions. And we will always thank you for putting breakfasts in the place they deserve.
3. THE TEA
The solution for everything. Drinkable heritage of the years of colonialism, ritual and institution, vehicle of delicious cookies and scones, you really end up convinced that there is no problem that cannot be solved with a cup of tea.
Afternoon tea at the Claridge Hotel
Four. THE OVERDOSE OF FAMOUS WRITERS
It is the paradise for the fans of the routes of writers and the museum houses . You are breathless listing the settings of their lives and plays: from **Shakespeare's house** to Dickens's dwellings, from the Sherlock Holmes cases to the Poirot cases, from the Enid Blyton mysteries to the multicultu from Zadie Smith, through Alan Moore encouraging the voice of fire and J. K. Rowling reminding thousands of children around the world how wonderful it is to read. You can start here and end where you want.
The Tower of London, full of gruesome and bloody stories
5. THE OVERDOSE OF FAMOUS MUSICIANS
John Lennon and Paul McCartney deciding to start a group, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger meeting on the subway, Malcom McLaren creating punk from his shop, David Bowie inventing Ziggy Stardust, New Order being born from the ashes of Joy Division, Queen filling Wembley, the wars between Blur and Oasis and the Oasis themselves, the Spice Girls calling for Girl Power in a Union Jack-printed minidress, the daily concerts, and the mega-festivals where a quagmire is thrown.
Abbey Road: The Beatles were just the beginning
6. LONDON
Hordes of young people come every year from all over the world to it to earn a living, scream their heads off and have a great time in its streets. Paris could be very beautiful, Brussels the official capital, the financial heart could be in Germany, but we all know which is the most vibrant, most lively, most powerful city : London, the true capital of Europe.
7. THE RECONVERSION OF INDUSTRIAL CITIES
The engines of one of the revolutions that changed the world were for many years emblems of its most negative side: pollution, misery, the degradation of public space, semi-slavery working conditions. Today places like Liverpool or Manchester they are vibrant cities that have not forgotten that the fight for labor rights goes far beyond children working in factories in the Victorian era. They are also riots, rights won by dint of lousy strikes, the leaden years of Thatcherism and class pride.
8.**DOWNTON ABBEY MANSIONS**
Institutions like the National Trust catalog, preserve and overwhelm with their display of properties and historic corners preserved by that sense of valuing one's own that the English have. We are infinitely grateful that some lords have gone bankrupt and have had to convert their mansions into hotels and wedding halls, although those that have belonged to the same family since times of The Tudors have a special one, of course.
You will honor the parks of London
9. NATURE
Here began what we all do now of going for a walk in the countryside and marveling at the songs of the birds and the green of the meadows (perhaps in contrast to the living hells cities were becoming). Touring the country today, the 19th-century fascination with landscape is understood: before the beaches of Torquay, the white cliffs of Dover or the lake district, we thank romanticism for rediscovering nature for us.
10. TELEVISION IN GENERAL AND THE BBC IN PARTICULAR
The incredible adaptations of works by Jane Austen and Dickens that ensure that all generations of English people know these characters as well as those of Coronation Street. The Thames logo. The reality shows that move the collective heart of the country. The Monty Pythons. Mr. Bean. The It Crowd, The Office, Extras, Dead Set. Up and down. I Claudius. Return to Brideshead. Sherlock. Doc Who. Skins. little britain. Absolutely Fabulous . We die of envy for Perfidious Albion.
eleven. THE THEATER AND LEGENDARY PERFORMERS
Only the presence of Shakespeare allows them to raise all possible cathedrals of praise, become the touchstone that every actor and actress has to go through . And it's also Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter , the vibrant scene of classical and contemporary theater and the musicals of the West End. and they have Kate Winslet.
cliffs of dover
12. THE PUB
The epicenter of social life resists even having become a bar pheno that travels the world and it is located in the middle of a shopping mall in Singapore or on a street in Toledo. But of course only English pubs have that drunken breath and that disgusting and delicious fry-up of pub food.
13. BECAUSE THEY ARE STILL A METROPOLIS
No longer in the sense of the gentlemen who read the Times from their club in India or South Africa the day after it came out on Oxford Street; a metropolis in plan well, in plan place where things happen. London is a true multicultural city where people come from all over the world . The metro is the most accurate image of exoticism and mixture of cultures that anyone in Europe can create. It's even full of Spaniards.
14. RURAL LIFE
Like a story of Miss Marple , the English towns hide behind their air of beatific postcard a mysterious reverse. They are gothic spirit in their churches and Georgian elegance in its gardens, they are Anglican priests who after mass celebrate a refreshment for their parishioners, parishioners who find a buried treasure and keep it for years. After their pristine upbringing and dapper ways, they are capable of anything.
North Yorkshire, a perfect example of English country life
fifteen. IT IS JUST A LOW COST FLIGHT AWAY
However many times you have been to London or however many summers you have spent in Brighton washing dishes and learning English, there are always places to discover at the stroke of a cheap ticket.
16. THE STUNNING HISTORY AND CULTURE
England is Stonehenge, Julius Caesar speaking of Britain, the Anglos meeting the Saxons, the war of the two roses that really inspired Game of Thrones, Elizabeth I against Mary Tudor, Francis Drake Star Of Piracy, a suffragist stabbing a Velázquez, paintings by Turner, the Turner Prize for Tracey Emin, London under Nazi bombs, the miniskirt, the riots of 2011…
17. THE ECCENTRICITY
The laconicism, the British humour, the pride of insularity, that they continue to be a class society and nobody seems to mind, see the rest of the European Union as a hindrance, the father of Guillermo Brown complaining that because of war rationing he can't get his ration of Stilton cheese, Carlos telling Camila "I want to be your tampax", the Mitford sisters, the highest class worst groomed, treat dogs like children and horses like dogs. That they celebrate the anniversary of the day on which a revolutionary wanted to blow up his Parliament seems perfectly logical.
Stonehenge, the great English symbol
18. FOOTBALL
Because they invented it. For the atmosphere in the fields. Because the Premier is involved in a multitude of projects in favor of that so Anglo-Saxon thing that is "the community" . Because it is a really competitive league thanks to the money from the sheikhs and the fact that the money from television is distributed well. Because cheating behaviors are persecuted and there is respect for sport. 'Cause Nick Hornby got with fever in the stands that even those of us who don't like football understand what that passion is like. Because those who really love it know that the Premier is the true best league in the world . And because one of their teams has the best anthem - sports or not - possible: You'll never walk alone.
19. THE COLLEGE CITIES
With his uranium love, his boat races, his secret and literary societies, his inbred and engaging college life, his rivalries, his Tolkien smoking in a pub, his Lewis Carroll on a boat devising stories for some girls, their faculties and their bicycles and above all that under the wrapper of a beautiful living museum they continue to be thriving centers of universal knowledge.
twenty. THEY ARE NOT AFRAID TO FALL INTO THE KISTCH
The souvenir porcelain plates, the old women with puppies left to play bridge , Croydon girls in fleece tracksuits and bows in their hair, carpeted bathrooms, teenage girls in high heels and miniskirts several degrees below zero, Charlotte from Geordie Shore, the monument to Lady Di at Harrods. Whole Harrods. A country with such a sense of pop culture that even the Queen is willing to pretend that she has jumped out of a parachute with James Bond. Nobody takes England so seriously and at the same time so little seriously as England itself. How not to love her?
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