Although this book is now 12 years old I've only just read it having seen a copy on my son's bookshelf recently. It was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Let me quote from the Amazon description of
The English:
"What is it about the English? Not the British overall, not the Scots,
not the Irish or Welsh, but the English. Why do they seem so unsure of
who they are? As Jeremy Paxman remarks in his preface to The English,
being English "used to be so easy". Now, with the Empire gone, with
Wales and Scotland moving into more independent postures, with the
troubling spectre of a united Europe (and despite the raucous hype of
"Cool Britannia"), the English seem to have entered a collective crisis
of national identity."
