How England made the EnglishHarry Mount2012

Harry Mount's "How England Made the English: From Why We Drive on the Left to Why We Don't Talk to Our Neighbour's" is packed with astonishing facts and wonderful stories.

For readers of Paxman's "The English" , Bryson's "Notes on a Small Island" and Fox's "Watching the English" , this intriguing and witty book explains how our national characteristics - our sense of humour, our hobbies, our favourite foods and our behaviour with the opposite sex - are all defined by our nation's extraordinary geography, geology, climate and weather. In "How England Made the English", Harry Mount scours the length and breadth of the country to find the curiosities, idiosyncrasies and peculiarities that have made us who we are.

You will learn how we would be as freezing cold as Siberia without the Gulf Stream; why we drive on the left-hand side of the road; why the Midlands became the home of the British curry. It identifies the materials that make England, too: the faint pink Aberdeen granite of kerbstones; that precise English mix of air temperature, smell and light that hits you the moment you touch down at Heathrow.

Titre original : How England made the English (2012)