"True Brits" by J.R. Daeschner

Date: 13 June 2010 13:26:20

"True Brits" is a book I bought several years ago, after hearing an interview with the author on BBC Radio London just after it was published (in 2004). Like lots of books I buy though, it took a long time to get round to actually reading it. It is subtitled "A Tour of 21st Century Britain in all its Bog-Snorkelling, Gurning and Cheese-Rolling Glory", which gives you a good taste of what it's about. Daeschner is a UK-based American journalist who travelled the length and breadth of the country to observe - and often participate in - the various bonkers traditional local festivals that still survive to this day. It's a very affectionate account - I was worried it would be a bit finger-pointing laughing-at-the-yokels sort of thing but I didn't get that vibe at all. All but two of the 10 events are from England (with one in Scotland and one Wales), and include such delights as shin kicking, bog-snorkelling, cheese rolling, gurning and "swaying the hood" (aka football with no rules - Orkney amongst other places has a local equivalent, the one in this book though took place in Lincolnshire). A majority of the events seemed to involve a pub crawl as an integral part of the proceedings.

The first 8 chapters had me often smiling and sometimes laughing out loud. I loved the attitude which says "If you can't get drunk and chase a cheese down a hill, what's the point of being British?" (page 3). The final two chapters though were a lot more sobering (that is not a comment on the lack of a pub crawl though). One is on Bonfire Night in Lewes, and the other is on "Darkie Day" in Padstow. Regardless of the valiant attempts by the author to cover both events fairly and impartially, and whilst voicing his own doubts and concerns whilst also giving room to the participants to explain the roots of the traditions, these are the two traditions which do have more questionable 'othering'* tendencies, and so I found them much more troubling. Whether the undertones of the event were religious (burning an effigy of the Pope) or racial (blacking up etc), they both left me feeling really uncomfortable, but it's to the credit of this book that with all ten of the events I felt that they were covered fairly and without any finger-pointing. I'd definitely recommend it as a good read.

* I've been doing my PhD too long, I need to get it out of the way and stop being so poncey and PC all the time. Sigh.