NAPOLEON BONAPARTE thought he was disparaging Britain when he called this country 'a nation of shopkeepers'. What a dilettante. This country has long inflicted much worse on herself: her people call her Blighty (compare this with the habit of the Italians, who refer to their nation as Il Bel Paese, The Beautiful Country) and her capital is the Big Smoke (Paris's nickname is The City of Light; Rome's is The Eternal City). The British are unrivalled champions of self-abasement, but our New Year's resolution in testing times is to put the Great back into Britain and celebrate what makes this country a place we are proud to call home.
1 Understatement
No one in Britain has a huge problem: we are invariably 'in a bit of a pickle'. We are only ever 'a little put out', even when we are completely gutted, but if we are truly pleased with something, we say 'it's not too bad. Alexander Fleming dismissed his discovery of penicillin, which has saved an estimated 200 million lives, with: 'One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. When 650 men of the Gloucestershire Regiment faced off tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers during the Korean war, Brig Thomas Brodie told his American allies by radio that things were 'a bit sticky' (the Americans took him at face value and told him to hold the position; only 39 men survived).
2 Endearing animal characters
Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.' A few decades later, 'Mr and Mrs Brown first met Paddington on a railway platform' and, in between, A. A. Milne filled a forest with a philosophising bear and his pig, kangaroo and donkey friends.
3 Cracking the Enigma code
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 03, 2024 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 03, 2024 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Under the Cornish sun
From the late 19th century, artists attached themselves like barnacles to Cornwall's shores, forming colonies that changed both art and the lives of local people
The contented garden
George Plumptre returns to the garden of the American artist John Hubbard and finds it basking in comfortable maturity
Safe havens of the West
Wildlife and people alike can thrive in four magnificent estates in Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon
A bit of light relief
Why paler hues are back in favour
A wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom
As he prepares for another season on the fly, our correspondent considers what it is about fishing that has long enthralled the great and the good-from Coco Chanel to US presidents, Robert Redford and Eric Clapton
Walking with giants
On a meander around the mighty summits of Dartmoor, Manjit Dhillon recalls tales of warring giants, complex marriages and clotted cream
Romancing the stone
His walls are works of art, but it is Tom Trouton's innovative trees, fruits and even newts that set him apart as a master of dry stone
Claws for celebration
Caught in a pincer movement? Feeling the need to scuttle away? You're not the only one: Helen Scales gets under the shell of the UK's crabbiest crustaceans
Why we love (and hate) the A303
Sometimes, it is the journey we remember, rather than the destination. Julie Harding travels the long, winding-and sometimes frustrating road to the West Country, taking in the sights along the way
A valley of delightful beauty
In the first of two articles, David Robinson considers the medieval abbey at Hartland, beginning with its nebulous origins as an ancient religious site associated with the cult of St Nectan