This book is a unique and detailed account of a rural way of life formed from extensive academic research and oral testimony recorded in the 1970's. It tells of the farm servant system in East Yorkshire which was central to the rural economy in that area for men born before 1900. Boys as young as 13 would be looking after and working with as many as 4 heavy horses in a team. Their lives would be spent living in the farmhouse and would continue that way until they married. Rural history forms an essential part of national history, with different parts of the UK having very varied employment systems. This book describes how, although having roots deep in history, the East Riding farming system was thoroughly modern and profitable, paying good wages to its workers. Telling the stories of their lives in their own words, this book brings to life the intimate details of a distant way of living and working.

Ideas about what it is to be British have recently become subject to change and discussion. The end of Empire, the loss of world power status, the collapse of old industrial communities, the dedine of Protestantism, and the rise of nationalism in Wales and Scotland, have all served to change the perception of what it is to be British. This book offers a range of original perspectives on how Britishness might be constructed at the turn of the millennium, and where it might be going. It pulls together the disciplines of history, art history, cultural studies, film and television studies, sociology and politics. Looking at Britishness from a variety of geographical perspectives, from the English regions to the United Kingdom as a whole, the contributors incorporate ideas from sport to sculpture, from Belfast to Blackpool, and from James Bond to Barbara Taylor Bradford. The book offers a distinctive and indispensable set of perspectives for the understanding of Britishness and how it is expressed in recent British culture.