Fact file
• As part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (“the UK”),
England is a parliamentary democracy, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. Its traditional
industries – fishing, farming, mining, engineering, shipbuilding – are all in decline and business today is dominated by banking and finance, the media and technology, steel production, oil and gas, and tourism.
• Bordered by Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, England is the largest country in Great Britain, occupying an area of 50,085 sq miles (129,720 sq km). The terrain is diverse, from plains to peaks, cliffs to beaches, though the superlatives are all modest on a world scale – the largest lake, Windermere, is 10 miles (16km) long, the highest mountain, Scafell, just 3205ft (978m) above sea level.
• The population of nearly 52 million is dense for a country of its size, but settlement is concentrated in the southeast around London, and in the large industrial cities of the Midlands and the North.
• This is one of the world’s most multiethnic countries, made up largely of people of Anglo-Saxon, Scots, Welsh and Irish descent, but with sizeable communities from the Caribbean, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, China, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe.
Only in England
However long you spend in England, you’ll never figure out its inhabitants. The famous English reserve, sarcasm and sense of humour, the belief that a cup of tea is a universal panacea, the all-consuming obsession with weather – all form a nigh-on impenetrable barrier to the English soul. So we’ve come up with a list of unique places and experiences that might help lift the lid on the national character. At the end, you may be no closer to knowing what the English are really like – but you’ll have seen another side to the country than just Big Ben and Beefeaters.
A day at the seaside Blackpool. The quintessential coastal trip is to England’s loudest, brashest and best resort, where the sun never sets on the rollercoasters, karaoke bars and candy-floss kiosks. Fake breasts and party wig optional.
A nice snack Melton Mowbray. France gives protected status to its champagne, Italy to its succulent ham from Parma, and England? Step forward the humble but heroic pork pie.
The Olimpick Games Chipping Campden. Never mind London 2012, what you really need from a world-class sports meet is rustic wrestling, shin-kicking contests and dancing around in Tudor dress.
Cerne Abbas Giant Dorchester. Flummoxed by the English love of Carry On films and tabloid double-entendres? A visit to see a large naked man carved into a Dorset hillside is in order.
On the pier Southwold. Arcade games on the traditional seaside pier get a makeover in Southwold’s brilliantly inventive Under the Pier Show of handmade slots and simulators.
Full steam ahead Haworth. Time was, every right-thinking English boy a) had a thing for Jenny Agutter in The Railway Children and b) wanted to work on a steam railway. Here’s where they get to indulge both passions.
Snowshill Manor The Cotswolds. Eyes glazing over at the fancy plates and Old Masters at stately home Number 32? Charles Paget Wade collected the stuff we really want to see, from beetles to boneshaker bikes.
