There have been a few occasions in my life where I picked up a book for a quick browse of the first few pages and decided I will read it to the end regardless of whether I am in the middle of another book. “The English: a portrait of a people” by Jeremy Paxman is one of them.
For those that don’t know Paxman is a former news reader and presenter of BBC Newsnight, he is famous for his pitbull like interviews of those in power. And he happened to write a few books. Here Paxman gives his unique take on the English people, what shaped them and how they will adapt to a changing world. Published in 1998, in the early days of the Blair government and long before Brexit and the migrant crisis, it focuses mostly on the upper classes without much on the peasants and working classes. It looks at English attitudes to behaviour, patriotism, food, culture and even sex. However, it dwells too much on cliches such as the stiff upper lip and “playing the game”. I do acknowledge the role of physical activity and competitive sports has had on the English psyche but to say it has a role in building the British Empire is over doing it.
However I found this book unputdownable due to it being so readable and, to a lesser extent, entertaining. It would have been better if it dealt with the white working class a bit more and it completely glosses over the effects of immigration on English society from the twentieth century onwards.
