Introduction

Summary

Wherto schulde thou passe the see?

Hyt is bettur at home to bee.

Guy of Warwick (fifteenth century), lines 881–2

Englishness, Myth and Connectivity

Barely four weeks in office, on 4 June 1940, Winston Churchill went before the House of Commons to perform one of his most defining rhetorical feats. On the previous day the evacuation at Dunkirk had effectively been completed but the new Prime Minister did not deem this a cause for celebration: with France teetering on the brink of collapse and the prospect of Hitler's invasion of Britain seeming only a matter of time, Churchill chose to dispel any illusions Britons might be harbouring at this stage. As his speech unfolded, he reminded his audience that wars are not won by evacuations and, more importantly, that Britain's struggle for survival was imminent. Yet the closing words of his address remove themselves from the ineluctable reality of a war going badly and, instead, weave a vision of a mythical victory built on defiance, providence and the mobilisation of the inner sanctum of British identity, insularity:

We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender; and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the Old.