«Tea is still believed, by English people of all classes, to have miraculous properties. A cup of tea can cure, or at least significantly alleviate, almost all minor physical ailments and indispositions, from a headache to a scraped knee. Tea is also an essential remedy for all social and psychological ills, from a bruised ego to the trauma of a divorce or bereavement. (...) Perhaps most importantly, tea-making is the perfect displacement activity : whenever the English feel awkward or uncomfortable in a social situation (that is, almost all the time), they make tea. It's a universal rule: when in doubt, put the kettle on. Visitors arrive; we have our usual difficulties over greeting protocol. We say «I'll just put the kettle on». There is one of those uneasy lulls in the conversation, and we've run out of weather-speak. We say, «now, who'd like more tea ? I'll just go and put the kettle on». A business meeting might involve having to talk about money. We postpone the uncomfortable bit by making sure everyone has tea. A bad accident - people are injured and in shock: tea is needed. "I'll put the kettle on». World War Three breaks out - a nuclear attack is imminent. «i'll put the kettle on». You get the idea»
P.312
«In any case, the Church of England is the least religious church on Earth. It is notoriously wooly-minded, tolerant to a fault and amiably non-prescriptive. To pit yourself down as «C of E» (we prefer to use this abbreviation whenever possible, in speech as well as on forms, as the word «church» sounds a bit religious, and «England» might seem a bit patriotic) on a census or application form, as is customary, does not imply any religious observance or beliefs whatsoever - not even a belief in the existence of God. Alan Brenner once observed, in a speech to the Prayer Book Society, that in the Anglican Church «whether or not one believes in God tends to be sidestepped. It's not quite in good taste. Someone said that the Church of England is so constituted that its members can really believe anything at all, but of course almost none of them do».«So although only 12 per cent, at the last count, will go so far as to call themselves atheists, I think that the former Archbishop's notion of prevailing «tacit atheism» among the English is fairly accurate. If we were real atheists, he and his Church woumd have something to get their teeth into, someone to argue with. As it is, we just don't care enough. (...) Other people are very welcome to worship Him of they choose - it's a free country - but it is a private matter, and they should keep it to themselves and not bore or embarrass the rest of us by making and unnecessary fuss about it. (there is nothing the English hate more than a fuss.)»Pp. 354-356
This ethnography of England is quite remarkable and fully enjoyable. Neither an academic work that needs to be read 4 times to be understood, or a smallish book tourist-style approach that can be read in 3 hours, it is enjoyably lenghthy and thorough, and you really get the idea of what it means to be English, regardless of the English person's real origins. The social unease, the immense role of humour, the pub rules ... You become aware of the pattern of the english mind, though it's hard to define what is specifically English, since a great many things are common in many countries, it's more about the way of dealing with them, of using them. But somehow the author manages to explain it, and it's really convincing, worth the read, even if you don't plan to visit the country anytime soon ... What I noticed too is that we do have a lot in common, we the french people. In this book we discover our northen english-style half part, all the while realizing that we do have another quite different part, the southern-latin part.
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