englishness & ginger beer

englishness & ginger beer, originally uploaded by jamesburden.

What does it mean to be English? Or American? Or Ukranian? How do we define our culture? There are plenty of people around who define our culture for us. The essence of Englishness is often illustrated by reserve – the stiff upper lip. This doesn’t sit too well with that other great English stereotype – the hooligan. My upper lip is not stiff and I have not to date illustrated any tendency towards hooliganism. And yet I am English.

For me Englishness is about ginger beer. More precisely, it is about ginger beer on a sunny day with clouds scudding across the sky and an expanse of non-geometrically composed fields laid out before you.

Open minded that I am – I put it to you that Fentimans make the best ginger beer.