Mary, an almost impossible question to answer! If you were about ten years old I would suggest you get a recently reprinted copy of Our Island Story by H E Marshall, which introduces children by way of individual well-written 'stories' to the history of England.

I just looked it up on amazon.uk and it is highly recommended by everyone except a Scot(!) and someone who says it has an 'obsolete view of British Imperial tradition' ;-(

As an adult you just need to 'read around the subject' as much as possible. Personally I would avoid 'historical novels', for learning facts much as I wouldn't rely on Hollywood for a true-view of . . . anything.

Of course these days there are some first class TV series on various aspects of English history, although we have been rather over-Tudored in the last few years. Archeological programmes are also very well done.

Anything by David Starkey or Michael Wood are worth watching and very informative. Perhaps you can get them as DVD's in the US.

Mary, I remember having the same problem here when. a few years ago I wanted recommendations for a general history book of the USA. The only person who replied was Frieda who suggested Kathleen Burke's Old World New World, a detailed and very informative tome. I also came across America by Alistair Cooke who you will know as the man who introduced 'Masterpiece Theater' but was better know over here as the writer/correspondent/reader of 'Letter From America' that went out on BBC radio weekly for many many years. He had been a young reporter on the old 'Manchester Guardian' and was one of those people always in the right place at the right time and met many of the Great and the Good. eg In the mid 30's he was sent with a message to a certain London address, only for the door to be opened by Wallis Simpson; the maid's day off! He was reporting from the scene where/when Bobby Kennedy was shot . . . and so on.

And I realise that almost none of the above answers your question in any way . . . except perhaps that history is always 'in the making'.

And try and build up a time-line so you become aware of events and roughly when they took place. Over here it is easy to do it by using the various date of the Kings and Queens and linking facts to their reigns. Unlike the way the subject is taught in schools. One week the kids 'study' the Tudors, the next it's Ancient Egyptians, the next Vikings . . . ;-(

Thank you, Vee, for your responses. I forgot to mention 2 other reference books I have: "The English: The Making of a Nation from 430-1700" by Malcolm Billings. This one is well-illustrated, with various photos of ruins, castles, fortresses, etc.

The second is a dictionary of all things British. It is also well-illustrated and I have used it often to look up what are to me obscure events or fests. e.g. Morris Dancing. (As an aside, believe it or not, I found Morris Dancing was done in VA when I lived there. Dancers would gather in a ballet studio, rehearse, then perform on the beach on May Day at dawn!).

I'd like to hear from others who frequent this forum Where is everyone?

Martin? Would like to have your opinion on this.

Sorry! Actually, I have been off-line, due to getting a new laptop and trying to run it with a very outdated dongle! It needed my kind IT expert friend to sort out the mess. As he is much in demand, I had to wait for some time for him to drop in.

I couldn't advise you on a good non-fiction History book anyway, as my taste is for fictional and entertaining ones and medieval murder mysteries.

Ann, have you read Jeri Westerson? I just finished her latest, A Maiden Weeping. The series is set during Richard II's reign.

No, I will check that out. Thanks.

Mary, re Morris dancing I'm afraid many English people tend to be very cynical about it. As you will know it was reintroduced in the late Victorian/Edwardian period together with the country music that accompanied it . . . plus the many old folk-tunes that were dying out (and most of their words 'tidied up' as many of them were very earthy) Certainly this dancing is popular with some dedicated groups who turn up at various fetes/fairs during the Summer months with their squeeze boxes, strange costumes and pig's bladders on sticks.

Dido/Diana's partner Stan used to ask the question "Why do Morris dancers wear bells around their legs?" "So everyone hears them coming and runs away."

nb Not having seen Diana/Dido here for some time or been able to contact her I 'looked her up' and found a Death Announcement from a regional paper saying she had died last year. I will miss her knowledge about all things Welsh, how she would take me to task if I made a mistake and, most of all listening to her many excellently adapted BBC radio series.

Vee, I am sorry to hear this news. I had noticed that she hadn't posted for a long time.

I also had wondered about Dido's absence. Now we know why. I am sad to hear it, but I thank you, Vee, for finding out and letting us know.

Dido could quote more poetry from memory than anyone else with whom I've been acquainted. I loved her posts and her passion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vee, my posts continue to linger as vapor, sometimes appearing days later and sometimes never materializing. It seems to happen here at RP most, but I have noticed it at a couple of other Houzz forums as well. Often I will click the 'Like' button just to let you know that I'm around, but that doesn't always work either.

Friedag, have you contacted Houzz about this problem? I have found them very helpful and they responded quickly to a query.

Frieda, I have never received a 'like' message from you and wonder if others here have/haven't heard from you . . . not that I expect you to send me a message . . . just saying!

And yes, passion is a good word to describe Dido, both her love of literature and her own nature; it's what got her thrown off RP by Spike way back and having to return using a different name. ;-)

Vee, thank you for telling us about Dido. I am sorry to hear the news,although I gathered she had not been well for some time. Her postings here were unique and I always enjoyed reading them. I will never forget how she once took me to task for my love of "Le Grand Meaulnes", labeling it an "adolescent" novel. (AKA "The Lost Domain" by Alain-Fournier).

I'm just coming across this now. Somehow I didn't see it before. I had been missing her as well. I had the feeling she had not been as vigorous since her partner Stan was no longer with her. I've observed this frequently happens with long-established couples.

We will indeed feel her absence.

On the topic of Britishisms: I keep coming across the word "Pommie." I assume it is Britspeak for a snob of the upper class? Is that correct?

No Mary, it's a Australian expression for an English person Pommie or Pom or even Pommie bastard. Or should that be 'Auspeak' or do Australians speak British? I am gradually learning that only Americans speak English!

Woodnymph, no, it is the word used by Australians for British people. There is no fixed explanation for it. Some say it was because the English convicts who were sent to Australia had POME (Prisoner of Mother England) on their clothes! Other because the sun reddened cheeks of the English looked like pomegranates.

I was told when I migrated to Australia that it could be used affectionately but not if it was accompanied by an expletive!

This is odd! I have just noticed a reply from Vee which wasn't there when I posted. I would not then have duplicated!

Perhaps hers went through a filter as she quoted the expletive!

Ann I hadn't meant to upset anyone's delicate sensibilities by using an expletive! When this site used to be run by Spike there were numerous words in everyday use over here, deemed unsuitable for American ears.

Of course Australians/Kiwis have an even richer vocabulary than the English . . . if you remember the video Kath put up using a 'Toyota' ad as an eg.

Toyota Advert

Vee, there was a travel ad for Australia featuring Lara Bingle which didn't go down well either here or abroad. It rather gave an uncouth impression, it was felt! It got mocked a lot!

Annpan - I saw your reply during the weekend, but did not see Vee's until you mentioned it today. So yes, apparently they put a delay on naughty Vee.

That is strange as I saw my reply almost straight away, but not Annpan's which didn't appear for some hours!

Strange indeed!

The times at the end of the posts are all over the place too! I wrote my reply not long after I read the original query from Mary and before Vee was around to answer. Vee usually starts her posts from after 4pm my time, early morning in the UK!

My post is timed well after hers, which is indeed the strange thing! Was mine delayed for some reason? It popped up here as soon as I posted it. This is doing my head in!

BTW, what started this query? Mary, where did you see the reference to Pommies which gave you the wrong impression of the meaning? I believe that these days it is used more about sporting rivalry, cricket in particular, than in general conversation.

Thanks to both for your responses. I saw the "Pommie" reference in a work by John Fowles.

Encountered "Toad in the Hole" and "Spotted Dick" within "The Durrells in Corfu." OK, what exactly are these special Brit dishes?

Mary I think we have met Spotted Dick here in the past. It is a steamed suet pudding with lots of currants, raisins and sultanas added (hence the 'spots'). Best served in the winter with lashings of custard.

Toad in the Hole is a dish of sausages cooked within a batter pudding ie Yorkshire pudding base. There is an art in getting both 'elements' to be ready at the same time. So if large sausages are used they need to cook in a hot oven for 10 mins or so then the batter is poured over them and cooked in the same hot oven. The sausages should be moderately brown on top and the batter crispy on the outside and fluffy within. Often served with mashed/boiled potatoes, veggies and plenty of gravy.

These would have been/are considered cheap but nutritious meals much favoured for 'school dinners' in days gone by.

Hardly typical Grecian fare but that wouldn't have bothered English ex-pats!

So "Spotted dick" is a sweet dish, whereas "Toad in the Hole" is the opposite. I assume the "toad" is the sausage? Both sound like wonderfully hearty fare for cold winter days.

Mary, I think I've heard of "toad in the hole" here in the southern US. You tear a hole in a slice of bread, put it in a frying pan and break an egg into the hole.

Vee, what are sultanas?

Donna

Donna, sultanas are slightly bigger than raisins, golden in colour and juicier. There appears to be some argument about what type of grape these dried fruits are from, but it seems they are not from the fruit of red or black currant bushes , . . . from which we make jellies/jams.

Thanks! I like currants but don’t see them often here. We have both dark raisins and golden raisins.

Sultanas are golden/white raisins. IME raisins are the largest dried grape product, then sultanas, with currants the smallest (made from a particular variety of grape called currant grapes, not red or black currants. Currant grapes eaten fresh are small and very sweet).

Yes, there are two "Toad in the Hole"s, though the sausage version is more common in the UK. It was also originally made with chopped up pieces of leftover meat, or pieces of cheap meat, which was the "toad" - Wikipedia suggests the finished dish looks like the meat is "peeking" out of holes in the batter, hence the name. The fried egg in a hole in a slice of bread version is also known as a "One Eyed Egyptian" (pronounced by my then toddler DD as "one eye dipped in") or a "Bullseye". But a "bullseye" in the UK is a kind of hard, striped mint candy.

Isn't language fun?

Collen, over here sultanas arebigger than raisins so I suppose it is a matter of what sized product is favoured in different countries and packed accordingly. I remember astrokath (sometimes still here at RP) saying that sultanas are never used in Aus baking . . . and she is from Adelaide so it must be true!

Well I'm from Perth and have been a professional cook for over 40 years, I can assure you that sultanas are commonly used in baking here. Raisins are seldom used, though.

This is a sultana

This is about raisins

Note in the second article it says "In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word "raisin" is reserved for the dark-colored dried large grape,[1] with "sultana" being a golden-colored dried grape, and "currant" being a dried small Black Corinth seedless[2] grape.

IME raisins are a little larger than sultanas (Muscat raisins are huge compared to sultanas) and much darker. I have fruit cake recipes which call for raisins, sultanas and currants as separate ingredients, and generally if something like dried fruit scones are made, the fruit specified is sultanas.

Colleen, I would never dare argue with a professional cook! I think your reference to the 'second article' describes what they look like over here. I don't know if you would agree but currants are usually small, hard and gritty.

Yes, currants are indeed small and a bit gritty- I think the grittiness is due to the sugars in the fruit crystallising and so being "crunchy". They shouldn't be too hard, though, unless they are very old.

Currents are quite small at the groceries here in Kentucky, too, and gritty as you say. Raisins look like the Wiki picture in Colleen's post. I've never bought sultanas and don't know that they are available, but I think there are boxes of white raisins. I'll have to get some and check the size! My grandmother had Concord grape and white grape vines in her garden. The whites were sweeter than the Concords and not as flavorful to me. She made grape jelly from the Concords, but I don't remember doing anything with the white ones except to eat them from the vine.

Very interesting! I'm curious, though.

There is a separate fruit called a currant, rather tart, that comes from from a currant bush, not from any kind of grape. It is related to gooseberries. I grow native California currants in my garden, but never get to eat them as the birds get them all. No problem, as I actually planted them for the birds.

I get it that Zante grapes when dried are sold as currants. But if you come across an older recipe calling for currants, are they asking for real currants or Zante grape currants?

IME usually recipes specify "red currants" or "black currants", which are fresh, or "currants", which are the dried variety. They may even say "dried currants".

Rosefolly and Colleen, we grow black, red and white currants in our veggie garden and certainly the birds will eat them given half a chance. If we have enough we turn the reds into jelly, traditionally served with roast lamb/mutton or jugged-hare.

We generally freeze them 'whole' and add them to apple sauce (from our own cooking apples) which is reheated and added to cereal at breakfast.

A few berries eaten raw as part of a fruit salad are fine, but they need cooking as the taste can be too strong.

Our area used to be a prime location for blackcurrant growing, part of a Govt scheme to provided vitamin C for children from the late 1930's run by the company Ribena. As children we used to love this stuff. It came in a bottle of concentrated fruit juice which had to be 'watered down'. Good taken in hot water for winter colds etc.

Now is tastes nothing like the original and is more like 'pop' with a horrible metallic, chemically enriched flavour.

The company, along with many others producing 'soft drinks' has been forced to lower the sugar levels following Govt 'advice' about obesity

Ribena Info . .. pretty pics but may contain adverts!

Vee, Ooh, yes. Hot sips of Ribena, it was almost worth catching a cold! Snuggled in bed, wrapped in a woollen shawl, with hot water bottles or "Ottelbottels" as my little sister called them. Bliss!!

Redcurrant jelly is also good in Cumberland sauce for ham, and in peanut butter sandwiches (I prefer it to strawberry :-) ).

Vee I'm still here!! But I think you have remembered incorrectly about the sultanas - we do cook with them quite a lot. My Christmas cake recipe has sultanas, currants and raisins (as well as some glace fruit) in it.

Hi Kath. Sorry, the old brain is getting foggy. I thought you had said your mother gave you sultanas to eat 'raw' when you came home from school; I didn't realise you used them in cooking. ;-(

Btw Peanut butter and jelly (which we call jam) has never taken off over here as in the US. An elderly US Aunt demonstrated to my children the art of splitting a banana lengthwise and filling the gap with peanut butter. Quite a calorie-filled snack.

Peanut butter and banana sandwiches were supposed to be a favorite of Elvis. I prefer orange marmalade on my PB sandwiches.

I just like salt on mine. I can't imagine putting jam or jelly on PB!

Perhaps the PB is different in the US, I remember US soldiers stationed nearby in WW2 told us that theirs wasn't the same as our UK "Peanut Paste" as it was called.

Ann, you would probably regret adding salt to any U.S. prepared food.

Salty enough? We are very salt conscious here and have a number of salt reduced grocery items. PB is about the only thing I salt these days. I am also careful with sugar.

No fun getting old!