Читать книгу We’re British, Innit: An Irreverent A to Z of All Things British - Iain Aitch - Страница 56
ОглавлениеThis flower is often associated with the Welsh, as it can be worn on the lapel to celebrate St David’s Day. But the bright yellow flower also serves to welcome in the spring and remind the whole of the UK that it is Mother’s Day. Florists open early on Mothering Sunday to catch the trade as we go to visit parents, but tradition states that the correct gift for this day is daffodils that have been stolen from a public park, grass verge or, if all the free daffs have gone, bought from a petrol station forecourt.
From relative obscurity in the field of geology, Shropshire- born Darwin rose to be one of the most unpopular men of all time, so we are naturally proud that he is one of us. The disdain and even outright hatred for Darwin grew from his 1859 book The Origin of Species and other progressive works, which have long been used as a benchmark in disproving the existence of God, as well as putting forward the idea that we may have evolved from other primates. Some see his worst crime as perpetuating the career of the ever so slightly creepy Richard Dawkins, whose books, such as his recent Tooth Fairy: All Lies, regularly top the bestseller lists.
Now, let us get this straight: deckchairs are not all that difficult to put up. From 1945 to 1962 an estimated 65 per cent of British comedy was based on the concept of deckchairs being hard to assemble. Not a lot of funny stuff was happening during this period, obviously. What is more revealing about the deckchair is its design, in that it is very much about a slight lying back but not really about lying down. This is because we see lying down as being a sign of continental laziness, suspicious shiftlessness and loose morals. We may be on a day or week off by the sea, but we don’t want to be seen as slovenly. What the deckchair says is that we want to sit almost upright and possibly listen to a man playing an organ on the pier (see
