How England Made the English: From Why We Drive on the Left to Why We Don't Talk to Our Neighbours - Couverture rigide

Mount, Harry

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0670919136 ISBN 13 : 9780670919130

Editeur : Viking, 2012

Synopsis

For all their sophistication, Roman roads are responsible for the narrowness of our train seats today. The first Victorian trains were built to the same width as horse-drawn wagons; they, in turn, were designed to fit the ruts left in the road by Roman chariots.

This fascinating 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.

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.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Harry Mount is the author of Amo, Amas, Amat and All That, his best-selling book on Latin, and A Lust for Window Sills - A Guide to British Buildings. A journalist for many newspapers and magazines, he has been a New York correspondent and a leader writer for the Daily Telegraph. He studied classics and history at Oxford, and architectural history at the Courtauld Institute. He lives in north London.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Viking
• Date d'édition: 2012
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0670919136
• ISBN 13: 9780670919130
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 368
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible