Envying the neighbours

Serena Smith’s experiences (“Young life,” May) closely track my own, though in my late fifties I doubt mine still count as “young.” Yet the sense that continental nations live with more gusto has been with me ever since I first spent serious time in Europe in the 1980s. They seem to widely live more active and engaged lives there, with expectations (including of themselves) to match. The vastly superior coffee and cakes are expressions of an attitude; it is no accident that we have no vocabulary for hygge or la dolce vita.

A nation’s culture is not only found in its major institutions, but also in the quality and habits of everyday life, from pleasant public spaces and beautiful shop window displays, to care over personal presentation and interactions and the ways in which people choose to spend their time.

I’ve spent decades pondering reasons for the difference. It can’t be the climate, when even the Scandinavians do it better than us. It can’t be a religious hangover, since it’s found from Sweden to Italy. So I’m left with the conclusion that our hierarchical society is to blame. Many of this nation’s “good things” remain largely the preserve of the socio-economic elite. Despite the pretensions of the metropolitan classes, a lingering suspicion of perceived social ostentation deters many from living “up.”

Ian Stock, Essex