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 IN
SEARCH OF THE ENGLISH
The English: A Portrait of a People
Jeremy Paxman
Michael Joseph 1998, republished with minor revisions by Penguin Books
1999
Presenter of British TV’s Newsnight programme, Jeremy Paxman
is famous for subjecting politicians to aggressive questioning and scepticism,
but this book (now available in paperback) displays a softer, more reflective
side. Drawing on literary and historical references, The English
is an intelligent, interesting, amusing and stimulating investigation
of English identity. To attempt to analyse national character or even
to discuss whether any such thing exists is not an easy task, especially
when the identity in question is most notably expressed by the absence
of expression.
Unlike George Orwell, who described English identity in terms of what
proved to be rather transient habits, Paxman recognises identity as a
thing of the mind and pursues its core features through foreign perceptions
of the English, English perceptions of themselves, and, interestingly,
English perceptions (mostly hostile) of foreigners. To define what you
aren't is to define what you are.
Paxman wanders down all sorts of English highways and byways, considering
the influence of insularity and climate, English excellence at letters
rather than art or music, the national obsession with sport, the sense
of privacy and its connections with the English house, and England’s innate
conservatism and distrust of intellectuals and ideology. He is particularly
good on the nature, importance and limitations of the Church of England
although that will be fairly meaningless to atheists, pagans and devotees
of the shopping Zeitgeist.
He focuses inter alia on the English delusion that they all live
in a (southern English) rural Arcadia. This is easy to understand given
the fact that England’s cities are so goddamn awful and becoming worse,
but this rural fantasy is now driving the suburbanisation and hence destruction
of what remains of the real rural England. He considers the stoicism ("stiff
upper lip") of 'the Breed' who were trained in public schools to
administer the Empire, but seems to omit any reference to the importance
of the Classics. Above all he focuses on the melancholia and quiet moaning
which is probably inherent, but which now tends to dwell on England’s
political decline. This, however, is more nostalgia than nationalism.
Enjoying such supreme individual self-confidence, the English are
rather indifferent to nationhood.
But whilst Paxman’s account is a good starting point it’s patently not
the whole story. Besides the upper and university-educated middle classes,
the only other people to inhabit Paxman's England seem to be drunken football
hooligans. Fascinating anecdotes apart, the book lacks an overall sense
of direction. And although Paxman identifies the causes of the current
English soul searching (loss of Empire, devolution and European integration),
he fails to consider the broader question of whether national identity
has any long-term future in the face of American global culture.
Rik – 27 May 2000
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