"The English landscape at its finest - such as I saw this morning - possesses a quality that the landscapes of other nations, however more superficially dramatic, inevitably fail to possess. It is, I believe, a quality that will mark out the English landscape to any objective observer as the most deeply satisfying in the world, and this quality is probably best summed up by the term ‘greatness’. […] And yet what precisely is this ‘greatness’? […] I would say that it is the very lack of obvious drama or spectacle that sets the beauty of our land apart. What is pertinent is the calmness of that beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, of its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it."

Kazuo Ishiguro | The Remains of the Day

Diagnostic dilemma, innit bruv

A wonderful 2007 case study from the British Medical Journal reports how middle aged doctors can mistake street slang for symptoms of schizophrenia.

It’s probably worth noting that traditional British, and particularly London slang, could easily seem like thought disorder to the uninitiated as it is heavily based on word play and substitution.

"Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle."

Thomas Hardy - The Hand of Ethelberta (1876)

"Wealth is lent us, friends are lent us,
Man is lent, kin is lent;
All this earth’s frame shall stand empty."

Exeter Book (10th century), The Wanderer

Untitled by Andy Council