The key to our disunited kingdom lies with the Saxons
In ongoing debates about the future of the Union, it’s easy to forget that England is also, in fact, a union in itself. And it hasn’t always been a happy one. That’s the starting point for Ian Hislop’s This Union: The Ghost Kingdoms of England (Radio 4, Monday). Across four episodes, Hislop is exploring how Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria were not always parts of one whole English nation, but were once disparate and often warring kingdoms of their own.
“We assume there always was an England, but England had to be made, just like any other country,” as author Bernard Cornwell put it. Hislop traced the origins of the England we know, finding echoes of the Romans in Colchester, and meeting with historians in a recreated Anglo-saxon village in Jarrow. Next week, in episode three, he’s off metal-detecting in Mercia, recreating scenes from Detectorists, which Hislop says is his favourite TV programme.
This is clearly a passion project for Hislop, and his instinct for sharing good stories makes it compulsive listening. The relevance of this period of history to any modern Brexit-related changes or fracturing in British identity was never explicitly argued, but it was in the ether throughout.
Hislop invited sixth-form history students from each of the four former kingdoms to think about whether they see any of this history surviving in modern local identities. Would a teenager from Colchester define herself as East Anglian? “No. I don’t think many people would,” was the response.
The feeling of regional pride was stronger in Jarrow, in what was once Northumbria. Students there would describe themselves as English, but would be keen to stress the Northern aspect of their Englishness, and took pride in a sense of the Northern spirit of taking life as it comes, a character trait common to their Northumbrian ancestors, who struggled against harsh weather and frequent battles.
This is a fascinating period, but perhaps there is just too much to pack into four episodes. The structure is a busy pick’n’mix of kings, battles, monasteries and chronicles, with lots of different eminent contributors with valuable things to say, but not enough time for most of them to contribute much before moving on.
I’m not sure that this series has decided whether it’s meant to be a history of Anglo-saxon kingdoms, a study of English reverence for this particular period and what it says about disparate modern English identities, or a personal journey for Hislop through his own fascination with the past. It felt like a whistle-stop tour of all of these topics, without enough time. I just wish there was more of it. Coming after many radio programmes about Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish identities, this contribution to England’s story was as bright and illuminated as a gold-foiled medieval manuscript.
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s well as rejoicing in England, this week there was also the chance to experience a vicarious holiday abroad. A breezy cycling tour through France, sampling the gastronomic delights of each region along the way? Oui, s’il vous plait. Book of the Week: One More
Croissant for the Road (Radio 4, Monday to Friday) was the radio adaptation of food writer Felicity Cloake’s memoir of her 2,300km trip through France on two wheels a few years ago. Her panniers stuffed with camping kit and picnic gear, Cloake began in Brittany, where she feasted on the sweet pastry delights of kouign amann, and was haunted by tackling an oyster the size of a horse’s hoof (it was so big it had “the strength to fight back”). Then she embarked on a cassoulet odyssey in Toulouse, peering through the slow-cooked crusts and murky depths of multiple dishes of stewed beans to find tender duck, pork, and sausage beneath.
And then to Meaux, and the home of brie, the “king of cheeses, and the cheese of kings”, before freewheeling into Paris for the triumphant end of her tour. Each morning on her route, she sampled a local croissant, rating it out of 10 for butteriness, texture, and sweet-savoury balance.
It was perfect escapism. Reading Cloake’s words, Sophia Di Martino had an infectiously jolly storytelling style as she gamely did the voices of outraged officials eager to confiscate Cloake’s treasured picnic knife, and lingered enticingly over mouthwatering descriptions of luxurious lunches, crisp glasses of wine and stop-offs at exquisite boulangeries.
For those of us who won’t be venturing overseas this year, each episode was a mouthful of the sunniest, most nourishing comfort listening in this strange summer.