What makes the English English? Is it their eccentricity, their passionate love (or, certainly, hatred) of Marmite – or could it be something less quickly defined?

Beginning near the top of a muddy Gloucestershire slope in the Coopers Hill cheese-rolling contest and traversing a scenery of lawns and queues, coastlines and showing off arenas, Ben Fogle uses us on the trip through the peculiarly English: a nation of wax coats, cricket, sail boat races and jellied eels, by way of country wide about English: A TALE of Marmite, Queuing and Weather conditions treasures such as the shipping forecast, fish and chips and the Wellington boot. Not to mention the Dunkirk heart of relentless optimism in the face of adversity, whether it is the heroic failing of Captain Scott’s doomed Antarctic expedition, or just the perennial hope for better weather.

The archetypal Englishman – lover of labradors and Land Rovers yet holder of two passports – Ben applauds everything quintessentially British while also paying tribute to the history, culture and ideas adopted with such gusto they have become part of the fabric of the united states. Written with Ben’s brand friendliness and wit, this is a light-hearted however touching tribute to all things English.