Infusion

There’s a myriad of almost invisible cultural, religious, institutional and linguistic foreign influences that have ‘infused’ and shaped our ‘Englishness’ over the years. From the Church of England to vindaloo, these facts show that we are indeed a ‘mongrel’ nation:

· The Church of England, established during the rule of Henry VIII, is in fact a European invention. It took its basis from the ideas of Martin Luther (German) and John Calvin (French).

· British spaghetti know-how has come a long way since the late 1950s, when during a brilliant April Fool’s Day stunt, Panorama showed Richard Dimbleby walking among ‘spaghetti trees’, while workers pulled the pasta off the trees and put it into baskets!

· When the package holiday arrived in the 1950s, Britain began to adopt many of the characteristics of European living - al fresco eating, the patio, the bistro, pasta and air-kissing to name but a few!

· Watching today's Brits enjoying the nation’s favourite dish – curry – would have delighted Warren Hastings, Britain's first governor general in India in 1773. During his rule he had dreamt of the eventual fusion of Indian and British culture.

· Perhaps we wouldn’t scrub as well as we do today without the British Empire. The Indians brought us ‘shampoo’ (Persian for head massage) and the habits of using toothpaste and putting on ‘pyjamas’ before going to bed.

· Some 900 words in the English language come from the Hindi language. These include dungarees, jodhpurs (named after their Indian town of origin), bungalow, juggernaut (meaning ‘lord of the universe’), dinghy, mugger and pundit.

· Thanks to the Beatles’ innovative use of Indian music in their songs, the sound of the sitar became the staple diet of hippie culture in the 1970s.

· When West Indian immigrants came to the UK in the 1950s, they brought with them their music. In 1964, a group of mostly Trinidadian immigrants decided to throw an impromptu musical procession through the streets – this would become London’s Notting Hill Carnival.

· During the Second World War, American GIs introduced a whole new style of dancing - the Jitterbug. It was a wild and acrobatic jive that made the waltz and the foxtrot look dull and conservative.

· America gave us rock ‘n’ roll. It was Chuck Berry, Elvis and Bill Haley who inspired the rock music that The Rolling Stones and The Who like to call their own.

· The Oxford English Dictionary now recognises over 3,000 American words. Thanks to the ‘Americanisation’ of our language and culture we have the USA to thank for ‘Big Mac’, ‘BLT’, ‘Apple Mac’, ‘chewing gum’, ‘gameshow’, ‘chatshow’ and, of course, the cult of the celebrity.