This book is a brilliant exploration of `Englishness': the images, characters, myths and peculiarities that have contributed to the self-image of a nation over the last few hundred years.

A distinguished group of historians provides a wide-ranging account of the institutions, traditions and emblems that have become central to the English sense of history and national identity. They focus on emotionally powerful and universally resonant images: Guy Fawkes' Night and Armistice Day, the ancient Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan and the English sense of humour, school stories for children, the British `bobby', the military hero and the public portrait. The contributors include Robert Bushaway, David Cannadine, David Cressy, M. A. Crowther, Clive Emsley, Margaret Kinnell, Iain Pears, Gertrude Prescott Nuding, Reba Soffer and Marina Warner.

Myths of the English is an outstanding account of the way the English have come to see themselves and their past.

Roy Porter is currently working on The History of Hysteria.