What Makes the Quintessential Englishman?

The Evening Standard (one of my favorite London papers) recently asked the question: What Makes the Quintessential Englishman?

It pondered the question because, someone who many consider to be THE Quintessential Englishman – Stephen Fry – denied that he was such, to the horror of the columnist.

From the column:

Is Stephen Fry being a little ungrateful? Talking at the Royal Geographical Society the other night, he stunned the audience by turning roundly on the quintessential Englishman (QE).

“I wish I had a gold sovereign for every time that phrase is used,” he fulminated, “so I could put them in a sock to smack over the head of the next person who says it.”

His protestations echo Kate Winslet’s recent keenness to stress her humble and impoverished background. But what is so awful about being middle-class or quintessentially English?

Does Fry not realise that he owes the affection in which he is held to the widespread belief that he is representative of some national archetype?

Read the rest of the article here.

Oh and if you’re not following Stephen Fry on Twitter – he is after all Quintessentially English.

Map of Britain – With Real Place Names

I Stumbleuponed this the other day. It’s an article featuring a new atlas that transcribes place names based on what they actually mean as opposed to what the name actually is. There’s a rather funny map of the UK showing what it’s place names actually mean. I thought all of you would get a kick out of it. Some of the place name etymologies are really interesting.

Read the whole article here: Bizarre new atlas comes to the Great Land of the Tattooed