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A highly entertaining read for anyone with even a passing interest in English history. A great myth-busting book that takes you on a great ride through history and a national character. Think we´re the land of Punch and Judy and Morris Dancing? Think again as both traditions started in Italy. Love Winston Churchill´s wartime speeches? Well, they were spoken by an actor for the radio. Packed with details on real English history, it explodes a range of national myths from bluebirds in Dover (they are not indigenous European birds) to the origin of the Cornish pasty (they might have been invented in London), from our stiff upper lip (an Americanism) to where you can spend a Scottish bank note.

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