What do you think?
Rate this book
England: History of A Nation
English history is a vast and complicated story, made more so since 1707 by the question of where 'English' ends and 'British' begins. The long sweep of time from the first anonymous occupants of a nameless landscape to the regional government proposals of New Labour is a daunting, but also an exhilarating thing to contemplate.
Continuity and change, opposing but also complimentary forces, underlie the sequence of events in England's history. But what is really important is a sense of the nation's resources: with such a variety of human habitats and possibilities for human experience, England was an all-in-all for its people for many centuries, self-sufficient in the essentials of life.
But such a variety within a small compass also explains why the English as a nation can seem so elusive, a 'secret people' in G.K. Chesterton's words. There is no single English type, but rather a whole range of them, often with conflicting characteristics. It is as English to put on a red coat and hunt foxes as it is to hold up a placard and block the road in protest against blood sports. All this has made for an independent-minded, versatile and creative people. The roots and the development of English distinctiveness are the basic themes of this book.
Continuity and change, opposing but also complimentary forces, underlie the sequence of events in England's history. But what is really important is a sense of the nation's resources: with such a variety of human habitats and possibilities for human experience, England was an all-in-all for its people for many centuries, self-sufficient in the essentials of life.
But such a variety within a small compass also explains why the English as a nation can seem so elusive, a 'secret people' in G.K. Chesterton's words. There is no single English type, but rather a whole range of them, often with conflicting characteristics. It is as English to put on a red coat and hunt foxes as it is to hold up a placard and block the road in protest against blood sports. All this has made for an independent-minded, versatile and creative people. The roots and the development of English distinctiveness are the basic themes of this book.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
2 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
David Ross
51 books4 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
David Sutherland Ross is a fully fledged member of that well-established species, the Scottish literary exile. Born in Oban, Argyll, he was removed at an early age to his ancestral county of Ross and Cromarty, where he grew up and went to school. Furnished with a little knowledge about all sorts of things thanks to a Scottish education, he migrated to London expecting to become a journalist, but became a publisher instead.
Having learned from blurb-writing how to represent a tangle of ill-assorted elements and random events as a unified whole, he realised he was eminently qualified to write the history of Scotland, and produced Scotland: History of a Nation. Nowadays, as chairman of a small Scottish-based publishing company, he combines publishing with writing and the compilation of anthologies, including Awa’ and Bile Yer Heid, a collection of Scottish insults and invective. Although he enjoys it all immensely, sometimes he wonders whether it isn’t too late to try something completely different, like utilising his ability to do water-divining; or perhaps opening a beach restaurant in Bali.
His favourite place in Scotland is the summit of Ben Venue; his favourite Scottish food, new-baked scones with raspberry jam; his favourite Scottish book, The Scottish National Dictionary, and his favourite Scottish phrase, “Just a sensation.”
David Sutherland Ross is a fully fledged member of that well-established species, the Scottish literary exile. Born in Oban, Argyll, he was removed at an early age to his ancestral county of Ross and Cromarty, where he grew up and went to school. Furnished with a little knowledge about all sorts of things thanks to a Scottish education, he migrated to London expecting to become a journalist, but became a publisher instead.
Having learned from blurb-writing how to represent a tangle of ill-assorted elements and random events as a unified whole, he realised he was eminently qualified to write the history of Scotland, and produced Scotland: History of a Nation. Nowadays, as chairman of a small Scottish-based publishing company, he combines publishing with writing and the compilation of anthologies, including Awa’ and Bile Yer Heid, a collection of Scottish insults and invective. Although he enjoys it all immensely, sometimes he wonders whether it isn’t too late to try something completely different, like utilising his ability to do water-divining; or perhaps opening a beach restaurant in Bali.
His favourite place in Scotland is the summit of Ben Venue; his favourite Scottish food, new-baked scones with raspberry jam; his favourite Scottish book, The Scottish National Dictionary, and his favourite Scottish phrase, “Just a sensation.”
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.