Author Archive

I think what is British about me is my feelings and awareness of others and their situations. English people are always known to be well mannered and cold but we are not cold—we don’t interfere in your situation. If we are heartbroken, we don’t scream in your face with tears—we go home

FIRST CLOWN: He that is mad, and sent to England. HAMLET: Ay, marry; why was he sent to England? FIRST CLOWN: Why, because he was mad; he shall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, ’tis no great matter there. HAMLET: Why? FIRST CLOWN: ’Twill not be seen in him

Gorgonised me from head to foot, With a stony British stare. Lord Tennyson (1809-92), English poet. Maud, pt. I, set. 13, st. 2. Favorite0

There’s nothing the British like better than a bloke who comes from nowhere, makes it, and then gets clobbered. Melvyn Bragg (b. 1939), British broadcaster, author. Quoted in: Cuardian (London, 23 Sept. 1 988), referring to actor Richard Burton. Favorite0

Think of what our Nation stands for, Books from Boots’ and country lanes, Free speech, free passes, class distinction, Democracy and proper drains. John Betjeman (1906-84), British poet. In Westminster Abbey, St. 4 (published in Old Lights for New Chancels, 1 940). Favorite0

Britain today is suffering from galloping obsolescence. Tony Benn (b. 1925), British Labour politician. Speech, 31 Jan. 1963. Favorite0

There is not a more disgusting spectacle under the sun than our subserviency to British criticism. It is disgusting, first, because it is truckling, servile, pusillanimous — secondly, because of its gross irrationality. We know the British to bear us little but ill will— we know that, in no case do they

Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be “too clever by half.” The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters. John Major (b. 1943), British Conservative politician, prime minister. Quoted in: Observer (London, 7 July 1991). Favorite0

To many, no doubt, he will seem to be somewhat blatant and bumptious, but we prefer to regard him as being simply British. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Book review, Pall Mall Gazette (London, 1 8 Nov. 1 886). Favorite0

The British are a self-distrustful, diffident people, agreeing with alacrity that they are neither successful nor clever, and only modestly claiming that they have a keener sense of humour, more robust common sense, and greater staying power as a nation than all the rest of the world put together. Quoted in: Fourth