100 greatest Britons
My little boy turned six months old. See him with his mother:
Ziva is in the background, at one o’clock.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Do you watch so much British TV that, occasionally, you need to be reminded that you aren’t British?
You may be helped by this BBC poll from 2002 that identifies the “100 Greatest Britons.”
Consider: who was Isambard Kingdom Brunel?
Not only had I not heard of him, the alleged second-greatest Briton (ahead of the likes of Darwin, Newton, Shakespeare, and Elizabeth I); I’d be surprised to encounter five non-Britons who could tell me who he was.
(Reading about him, it’s obvious that he was a tremendous figure. It’s just that, on this side of the Atlantic, the Industrial Revolution looms less large in the imagination.)
I understand the high rating of Diana, Princess of Wales, even if I don’t agree with it. I even understand the inclusion of J.K. Rowling to the detriment of Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and other genre fiction writers. People get fixated upon recent figures.
It’s surprising, though, to see a 17th-century terrorist such as Guy Fawkes rated so well (30th). Not that I object. I think I understand his appeal. But it wouldn’t have occurred to me to make it a criterion for “greatness”; no, not even though I love to watch Midsomer Murders, which is close in spirit to how Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated. (And since Fawkes is included, why not Jack the Ripper?)
The list has no philosophers unless Darwin and Newton are counted as such. Hobbes? Hume? Absent. Locke? Adam Smith? They must have been reserved for the U.S. list.
Blake, not Turner, is the only painter.
No Yeats; no Joyce. Instead: Bono. Pop singers abound.
Actors abound: Richard Burton the actor makes the cut above Richard Burton the explorer. (Explorers abound, too.)
Ziva is in the background, at one o’clock.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Do you watch so much British TV that, occasionally, you need to be reminded that you aren’t British?
You may be helped by this BBC poll from 2002 that identifies the “100 Greatest Britons.”
Consider: who was Isambard Kingdom Brunel?
Not only had I not heard of him, the alleged second-greatest Briton (ahead of the likes of Darwin, Newton, Shakespeare, and Elizabeth I); I’d be surprised to encounter five non-Britons who could tell me who he was.
(Reading about him, it’s obvious that he was a tremendous figure. It’s just that, on this side of the Atlantic, the Industrial Revolution looms less large in the imagination.)
I understand the high rating of Diana, Princess of Wales, even if I don’t agree with it. I even understand the inclusion of J.K. Rowling to the detriment of Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and other genre fiction writers. People get fixated upon recent figures.
It’s surprising, though, to see a 17th-century terrorist such as Guy Fawkes rated so well (30th). Not that I object. I think I understand his appeal. But it wouldn’t have occurred to me to make it a criterion for “greatness”; no, not even though I love to watch Midsomer Murders, which is close in spirit to how Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated. (And since Fawkes is included, why not Jack the Ripper?)
The list has no philosophers unless Darwin and Newton are counted as such. Hobbes? Hume? Absent. Locke? Adam Smith? They must have been reserved for the U.S. list.
Blake, not Turner, is the only painter.
No Yeats; no Joyce. Instead: Bono. Pop singers abound.
Actors abound: Richard Burton the actor makes the cut above Richard Burton the explorer. (Explorers abound, too.)