England: The making of the myth : from Stonehenge to Albert Square

Fourth Estate, 2001. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. In the style of 'Longitude' and 'Fermat's Last Theorem', a narrative histor y of the making of the myth of the English. Three thousand years of our isl and history from Boadicea to Blair, from the acclaimed author of 'Restituti on'. In 75,000 words Maureen Duffy covers three thousand years of history to sho w where the idea of the English has come from. The myth begins with the ide a that the English were the original inhabitants of this island, that the ' real' natives of Britain are the English and anyone else is somehow a forei gner. The idea is captured by G K Chesterton in his popular poem of 1912 wh ich begins 'Before the Romans came to Rye or out to Severn strode/The rolli ng English drunkard made the rolling English road'. The first British heroes Boadicea and Caractacus ruled parts of an island t hat was divided into princedoms with names that sound like modern European football teams: the Iceni, Brigantes, Coritani and Catuvellauni. Boadicea w as one of the many charismatic female leaders of the time. Tacitus, the Rom an historian wrote that 'the Britons make no distinction of sex in their ap pointment of commanders'. Not much evidence of the myth of the English rose here. Even in 1500 an anonymous Italian visitor described the English wome n as 'very violent in their passion'. The myth of the English woman is just one of the many threads in this fascinating book which explores the political, religious, environmental and physical influences that have arrived at the myth that is E.