ABSTRACT
Judging by recent publishing across a range of genres and disciplines both the people of England and their characteristics are very much in vogue. For writers of fiction and autobiography, commentators on politics and popular culture and academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, the English appear to be a subject of considerable and continuing fascination (See Barnes, 1998; Scruton, 2000; Duffy, 2001; Shah, 2000; Gikandi, 1996; Davey, 1999). Yet the outcome of all this discussion and debate is not an emerging consensus on the identity and characteristics of the English but rather more studies, more confusion and, occasionally, rancorous argument. Just what is Englishness?
