Can "Britishness" be defined through our nation’s literature?
Ceri Radford, over at the Daily Telegraph’s blog, reckons so and has compiled her list of ten books which she thinks "capture something of the elusive nature of what it means to be British".
If you want to know what they are, potter over the Tele and have a read, although, there’s a couple I wouldn’t agree with- "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 ¾" captures the elusive nature of what it means to be a middle-class prat, not Britishness and "The Buddha of Suburbia," by Hanif Kureishi, whilst a decent read, has no real relevance to modern Britishness- "Trainspotting" ( when you scrape away below its too blatant surface) or something like "The Thought Gang" or "The Collector’s Collector" by Tibor Fischer do a much better job of that.
Anyway, here’s five more works (two non-fiction) which I think also could qualify for such a list:
1.The Kingdom by The Sea- Paul Theroux
Sarc personified and "best avoided by patriots with hugh blood-pressure", Theroux does a tour of UK 82 and basically rips the place and people apart.
Doesn’t like Larne.
2.Fever Pitch (or How to be Good)-Nick Hornby
Typical Nouveau Arse supporter, you know the sort, chardonnay and salmon sarnies at half-time with dashings of of middle-class angst, but Hornby also captures very well the sound of the UK suburbs.
3.Return of a Native Reporter- Robert Chesshyre
The Observer’s Washington correspondent comes home to the UK, doesn’t really like what he sees.
"The new leisured-class are people on the scrapheap. Geordies could end up like Red Indians- as extras in films about the North-East"
4.Yes Prime-Minister The Diaries of the Right-Hon James Hacker
Plays the line that it’s the bureacrats which rule the country, not the politicians. Probably even truer today.
5.Beowulf: A New Translation- Seamus Heaney
A monumental work from one of the most over-rated poets of modern times. Strictly speaking a poem, Heaney manages to bring alive part of our literary heritage...or put another way, its’ a damned good read with loads of dragons and gargoyles and Anglo-Saxon heroes.
3 comments:
Sorry but when has Seamus Heaney ever said he was a Brit.You have a British identiy and thats fine but others in the north like Seamus dont so accept that
Where did I say he was British?
Look at my list again, where do you think Paul Theroux comes from?
Does the name "Tibor Fischer" sound British to you?
What I have listed is literature which I believe represent Britishness; Beowulf being an old Anglo-saxon tale fulfils that criteria. Whatever nationality Heaney claims himself to be, is inconsequential from that point of view.
Kureishi's most relevant book in terms of modern Britain is the Black Album.
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