The Novelty of Culture

English culture would seem to be sturdier and more ancient than most. Yet attempts to define what makes England or Britain unique often fall back on traditions and icons that are surprisingly recent. In his Notes Towards the Definition of Culture (1948), T.S. Eliot (an American by birth) offered a set of ‘characteristic activities and interests’ of the English: ‘Derby Day, Henley Regatta, Cowes, the Twelfth of August, a cup final, the dog races, the pin table, the dart board, Wensleydale cheese, boiled cabbage cut into sections, beetroot in vinegar, 19th Century Gothic churches and the music of Elgar.’ How far back did these established English habits go? The first derby at Epsom was held in 1780, the first Henley regatta in 1839, the yachting race at Cowes began in 1826, while the first FA Cup final took place in 1872. Greyhound racing was popularised in the late-eighteenth century; the pinball table became widespread in the nineteenth century; Elgar began composing music in the 1880s. From Eliot’s list, only Wensleydale cheese and darts pre-date the eighteenth century – hardly the stuff of a glorious national heritage.

In the 2003 film Love Actually, the Prime Minister, played by Hugh Grant, gave a list of distinctive figures who had made Britain ‘a small country, but … a great one too’: ‘Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter, David Beckham’s right foot. David Beckham’s left foot, come to that.’ This speech was so popular that in 2005 the actual Prime Minister, Tony Blair, had to explain why he couldn’t make such a patriotic and, in the context of the film, anti-American speech in real life. What is striking, however, is not the nationalism of the speech but that the list of British icons is, again, remarkably modern. Besides Shakespeare, they are all from the twentieth century: Churchill was Prime Minister from 1940-45 and 1951-55; the Beatles released their first album in 1963; Sean Connery’s first James Bond film premiered in 1962; the first Harry Potter book came out in 1997; David Beckham made his debut for England in 1996.    

This supports the view, expounded by the historians Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger in their book The Invention of Tradition (1983), that what appear to be established traits or lineages are often fairy novel. This doesn’t mean that there is nothing distinctive about the English or British. But it does suggest that exactly what it is that sets them apart from other people today may be the result of recent developments, rather than being the manifestation of a primordial differences in national spirits. Cultures are dynamic, so lists of national characteristics or pantheons of national greatness are more useful in telling us about the present than they are in fixing a historic national identity.