Yes, British identity sort of seems to exist largely as something opposite to American identity. Still, I would feel strange saying it. It’s not that I’m not British, but if you asked I would say English. So it always surprises me (well, not really surprises, but it seems so overemphasised) that these threads are really full of the word British. Especially since most people seem to mean English, I think. Not a criticism, by the way, just an observation.
(Sorry Rodgers, the position has been filled! By a Dutchman who is something of an Anglophile… )
Yes, I’m an Anglophile. I started young with Shakespeare and Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and A Christmas Carol and Robin Hood on TV. Naturally lots of the literature I (and millions of others) studied in HS and college was British, including Dickens and Shakespeare. Add C.S. Lewis and Tolkien to my own reading.
In serious music Handel (yes, a naturalized Brit) is a major element, especially Messiah. Even though I’m 100 percent committed to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, his Zadok the Priest is still incredibly stirring.
Beyond the Fringe was one of my first encounters with humor that had an intellectual background. (Very early Second City and Tom Lehrer were others.)
I really do like lots of the current UK TV series that get to us here. (Obviously only the best have been selected.)
I sort of regard English as my ethnicity but British as my nationality, and I’m possibly more proud of the ‘British’ part than just English*, so tend to use that as my default. Perhaps it’s also because my partner is Welsh, so we are a British family.
*Because I’m proud that as a nation we are a close family of different peoples, which is why Scottish independence saddens me. Like a divorce in the family.
Yes. Definitely. Love the countryside, love the history, love the culture, from cricket on village greens to Cool Britannia. Love the Fens, the Cotswolds, the New Forest, the Lakes, the Jurassic Coast (even though I haven’t visited that one yet!). Love high tea at the Pumphouse in Bath, pasties in Cornwall, Wagamamma in London. Love the British Museum, the Tate Modern, the Costume Museum, MOL, etc… Walking the walls of Chester, watching Midsummer Night’s Dream in Stratford, climbing St Mary’s Tower in Cambridge, catching the boat from Little Venice to Camden Lock…
I’m an Anglophile, and I have been all my life - probably started with Rupert, Bilbo and Rat&Mole…
Well, yes…but that would ruin a proper thread…
And that just wouldn’t be cricket, would it?
But I will take the liberty of mentioning just one small aspect of the emerald isle that has a dampening effect (literally!) on some of us semi-Anglophiles:
Hasn’t anyone noticed that in the land of scones and crumpets, there’s just a wee bit too much …rain ?
oopss…sorry. But, gee…I was only trying to quote Shakespeare.
(Honest!–I was thinking of “this sceptred isle…this realm, this England”. And, well, “sceptred” sort of sounds like “emerald”. Almost…
And I haven’t read any Shakespeare for 20 years , anyway…
And besides, I’m not supposed to be posting in this thread, 'cause I’m only a semi-Anglophile…(and a semi-literate, one, at that. )
I had the good fortune to work in London for a little over two years and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had a very nice Mews two blocks from Marble Arch and a block from Hyde Park.The office was across from Portman Square so it was an easy walk to work. Edgware Rd. was full of Persian and Lebanese shops where I could get a shawarma and cup of tea for £2.5. So yes, I would consider myself to be an Anglophile.
In the words of the great Capt. Hawkeye Pierce, “I’m a life long Anglophile. England is still the only place I know where any young man can grow up to be the Queen.”
You mention many of my favorite places. I’m astonished we haven’t met.
Yes, by all means go to the Jurassic Coast when you have the chance. I stayed 4 days in Lyme Regis last autumn, walked out onto the Cobb every morning after breakfast and hiked the coastal path on the Undercliff in the afternoons. There are a couple of good fossil shops in the steep high street and a little museum that John Fowles used to be the curator for that’s worth looking into if you’re in town. I also also went over to Chesil Bank one day but it’s hard to walk on the knobby rocks.
You don’t get those luscious green rolling hills without it.
(You sent me off a-googling because, come to think of it, I’ve never questioned what sceptred actually means. Turns out it means ‘sovereign’. So, independent, i guess.)
No, the rain is part of the appeal! Well, maybe not always the rain per se, but the weather. I’d rather have cool and overcast than hot and sunny any day.
I’ve been watching British TV through the CBC and then via cable and the internet for about 50 years. Virtually everything on British TV is better written than even the best American shows. I think it comes from the mind set of the producers. British TV is actually looking to do quality work. American TV is looking to do popular work. As a result American TV writes to the least common denominator.
I also have a naturally very dry sense of humor. Seeing British comedy is like watching something written just for me. Where American comedy seems forced, trite and overly broad and has since I was young.
)
You don’t get those luscious green rolling hills without it.