After spending all day yesterday in front of the computer hammering through some copywriting work I felt like I needed to get out of the house today.  One of my favourite places to hang out when I’m over here in the UK is at the huge Borders we have nearby.  It has the best selection of history and architecture books I’ve ever found (it also has a Starbucks attached, which meant I got to try the new Cinnamon Dolce Latte, but that’s beside the point).

I’ve been racing through books lately, perhaps because I know I only have a few months left of free reading time before I have to get back into research mode.  Here’s what I have been reading, and what I will be reading very shortly:

Pocket Guide to How to Read a Church by Richard Taylor (£8.44 from Amazon.co.uk).  I like knowing what each symbol, image and style means when I visit a historical church or abbey.  In the UK and Italy there are hundreds of ecclesiastical buildings you can wander through, so this will help me to understand each individual feature better as I amble through the Welsh countryside and all over the Amalfi Coast in Italy.

Beatrix Potter: The Extraordinary Life of a Victorian Genius by Linda Lear (£6.29 from Amazon.co.uk).  Beatrix Potter was one of my favourite authors when I was younger (who could fail to like Jemima Puddleduck?), but now that I appreciate her more adult accomplishments, such as the great conservation work she did in the Lakes District, I want to get a better idea of how she came to be such a strong and important figure in a period when women really weren’t allowed to branch out on their own.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (fourth in the Crosstitch / Outlander series; £5.99 from Amazon.co.uk).  I have to admit, when I read the first book in Diana Gabaldon’s series about time-traveller Claire Beauchamp, I didn’t think I’d bother with the rest of the series.  It’s an absolutely enthralling story, but the first book seemed to draw to a satisfying close and I didn’t want to ruin the idea I had in my head of Claire and her Scottish Highlander husband Jamie.  I gave in, as you can probably guess, and I’m now up to book four.  Although certainly not as good as the first, the rest in the series are proving to be a bit of a guilty pleasure at least.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (£11.98 from Amazon.co.uk).  I love Geraldine Brooks, she’s a fantastic writer and she always researches her story lines thoroughly.  ‘Year of Wonders’ was brilliant, so I knew I was going to like her new release.  ‘People of the Book’ is about a specialist book curator who is asked to investigate the origins and history of an incredibly valuable Jewish text, the Sarajevo Haggadah.  It combines many of my loves - fascinating history, the discussion of religion, and an undeniable passion for books as an art form.  I highly recommend it.

Me, Myself and Prague by Rachel Weiss ($24.95 AUD from Dymocks).  Rob and I went to Prague over Christmas and we fell in love with the place.  He was fascinated by the beer halls, the cuisine and their hundreds of different brews, whilst I was obsessed with the red roofed architecture, the shops and the Christmas markets.  When I saw that Rachel Weiss, a fellow Aussie, had written a book about the year she spent in Prague, I snapped it up.  She mentions a lot of things about the Czech Republic that I had noticed too (that native Czechs tended to be quite abrupt; that tourists stuck to the main areas and didn’t explore; and that the Communist era had impacted the development of the country), and a great deal more that I didn’t know.  A well written travel read.

This is Not a Drill: Just Another Glorious Day in the Oilfield by Paul Carter (£5.99 from Amazon.co.uk).  If you haven’t already read Paul Carter’s first book, ‘Don’t Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs (She Thinks I’m a Piano Player in a Whore House)’, do yourself a favour and grab a copy.  It’s not only incredibly funny, but is a real eye-opener about life on the rigs.  Carter seems to frequently find himself in weird situations - armed hold-ups, chasing runaway monkeys with dynamite and participating in midget throwing competitions, amongst other things - so I’m hoping his follow up book will be just as fun.

Queen Victoria, the ruler of the United Kingdom for a large part of the nineteenth century (she reigned from 1837 to 1901), was one of Britain’s most loved queens.  Although she had a tough time following the death of her husband, Prince Albert, and was criticized by the press for remaining in mourning for her lost life-partner for so long (Albert died in 1861, and Victoria was rarely seen in public for a number of years after), her later years were celebrated as being the epitome of British supremacy.  During her reign she saw the Industrial Revolution come to the fore, the bringing of India under direct British control (Victoria herself became Empress of India in 1876), the introduction of postage stamps and a centralized postal system, the holding of the Great Exhibition (which established Britain as an international commercial power), and the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species.  The Victorian period is often thought of as being one of great achievement both domestically and internationally.

Perhaps it should thus come as little surprise that Queen Victoria was known to disapprove of Queen Elizabeth I, dare I say the most loved of British Queens before Victoria’s reign.  Elizabeth, who reigned from 1533 to 1603, was the bright light at the helm of the British empire which saw the likes of Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, and William Shakespeare step into the spotlight.  The Elizabethan era was renowned as the Golden Age of Britain, as a period which encouraged the arts and literature and which saw the English fleets defeat the much feared Spanish Armada.  Elizabeth herself was worshiped as Gloriana, a demi-god who could do no wrong in the eyes of the masses.  She is also claimed to have remained a virgin throughout her life.

This life-long virginity was one of the things Victorians found most confusing about Elizabeth.  The Victorian period celebrated domesticity and the role of women as mothers and wives, so Elizabeth - proudly unmarried and childless - didn’t fit their mold.  Victoria, a mother, wife AND queen, must have found the comparisons made between her and Elizabeth early on in her reign to be somewhat of an insult, particularly as Elizabeth had begun to be portrayed by the Victorian press as promiscuous, unfeminine and vain.  The press, and perhaps Victoria, assumed that Elizabeth must have been sleeping with several of her male companions as she had no husband to keep her under control.

Victoria’s dislike of her predecessor came to the fore when it came time for Victoria to select her advisors.  Tradition has it that Elizabeth, when approached with a list of names of potential advisors, was unable to mark down her choices as no one had a quill and ink.  Instead, she used the needle she had been sewing with to place a pin-prick next to each of the men she selected.  Ever since, British monarchs had been expected to select their advisors in the same way.  Victoria, being the respectable nineteenth century lady that she was, felt that using a needle to punch a hole next to men’s names was too sexually symbolic.  She was said to have announced her disapproval of Elizabeth and refused to continue with the tradition.

To this day, it is uncertain whether Victoria was jealous of Elizabeth because of Elizabeth’s success as a female ruler, or whether Victoria simply disliked the ‘unbecoming’ behaviour of her predecessor.  Either way, Victoria certainly held very little affection towards the previous Queen of Britain.

I do dearly love the UK. The weather, the gardens, the football, the culture that seems somehow a part of me even though I wasn’t born here; all are reasons I keep coming back. Each time I return, however, I’m reminded of how different I am to the norm, simply because I’m Australian. We like to think we have a lot in common, us Aussies and Brits - we share a love of sports, the English language, and the Union Jack, amongst other things - but the fact is that Australians are drastically different in personality to our brothers and sisters from the Mother Country. I find this to be particularly true when you compare an Australian of my age (mid-twenties) to a Brit around the age of Rob’s parents. We seem to have opposing philosophies, and whilst I acknowledge this could be to do with age as much as culture, I can’t help but think it has a lot to do with being brought up in different countries.

Australians are reputed for being laid-back, cheerful and in favour of giving people ‘a fair go’. In general I’d have to say I think this is true, but in ways that are more subtle than you would think at first glance. At Rob’s dinner table, the conversation usually centres around politics or finance - the recession, unhappiness with the state of the Labour Party in Britain, membership in the EU, and so forth. I’m always amused when I’m asked “What is the standard mortgage rate in Australia?”, “How much do you pay for your health insurance?”, “How much tax do you pay?”, or “How much is your car insurance?” - to me, these are personal questions, and ones that I am never asked in Australia. My reaction to most statements made about such topics is to shrug, smile, and say, ‘Oh well, it won’t always be like this.’ I’d rather be talking about food, books, or the lives of family and friends. Whilst Rob’s parents seem to think it’s perfectly fine to enquire about the exact figure of my annual income, my family’s income, and our use of mortgages and credit cards, my parents would never dream of asking Rob anything remotely to do with money. They would instead be interested in how Rob’s family works - are they caring towards one another, what do they talk about around the dinner table, and are they pleasant towards me?

I’m always amazed by the treatment of customers by staff in British restaurants or stores. Coming from a retail background in Australia I expect to be served with a smile and a friendly word or two - but in the UK this is rare (particularly in London and the other bigger cities). Staff here aren’t necessarily outright rude, they just don’t seem to care one way or the other. This difference made itself particularly apparent recently, when I was coming through Immigration in Manchester. I strode up to the desk with a friendly smile and greeting, only to be responded to with a grunt. When the immigration lady decided I had been in and out of the country too often over the last few months (even though this isn’t illegal and I was 100% in the right as far as my visa was concerned) and I was thus worthy of detaining for further examination, she treated me like a criminal. I wasn’t allowed to turn my phone on to text Rob (who had already gone through immigration to get our luggage), I wasn’t allowed to explain my reasons for being in the UK so frequently, and I was cut-off several times as I answered the questions the immigration staff were asking. My luggage was torn apart and rifled through, every single piece of paper I had on me (including receipts for drinks and two magazines I’d read on the plane) was taken for further investigation, and at one stage they even wanted to confiscate my thyroid medication (which I can’t do without). Only after it was established that I was in fact genuine and telling the truth did the staff member start being polite to me, at which point she told me that her daughter was currently out in Australia back-packing. I was certain her daughter wouldn’t have been treated as rudely going through Australian Immigration as I had been trying to enter the UK - they at least would have greeted her daughter with a smile. Rob confirmed my suspicions - he’s never been treated poorly as a Brit entering Australia.

A recent article in the UK’s Sunday Times Magazine, entitled ‘What a Difference a G’Day Makes,’ analyzed the reasons that so many Brits are emigrating to Australia. Presently, 25% of all immigrants to Australia are British, and a huge portion of our tourism industry relies upon the British Pound. One of the Brits interviewed stated that she moved to Australia in part because she loves how tolerant the Australians are - she can wear flip-flops (thongs) to the office, and she believes that Australians are laid-back, free, and completely unaware of class or cultural barriers. Another interviewee said that in Australia, “You’re treated the same as everyone else, whether you’ve been here for a few weeks or 30 years. You’re not judged by your background or your accent, you’re judged by what you can do for Australia.” The final sentence of the article is the most telling - “as I watched younger Australians and British backpackers dance in the New Year and partying on the beaches of Sydney, it occurred to me that perhaps Britain had made a terrible mistake - surely they should have left the convicts at home and emigrated?” I think this article has hit the difference right on the head - in Britain, a long history of class and cultural divide has seemingly become ingrained in the national psyche. In Australia, we simply don’t care - we’ve all come from humble beginnings, whether convict or settler or immigrant - and we’re all working towards a single national future.

I find that I have to hide my Australian-ness whilst I’m in the UK, not because I’m ashamed of my accent or my attitudes, but because people really distrust my cheerfulness and laid-back approach. I’m not as worried about this as I used to be - I can’t change the UK or the people that inhabit it, nor should I want to change my own uniquely Australian personality. The secret is to understand that the differences run deep and are forged by often opposing national histories - Australia is young, optimistic, and has never been invaded or attacked to the extent the UK has. For the most part emigration to Australia is legal, whereas the UK has an open-border policy within the EU which sees hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world pour in to the country each year. Far from being bogged down by year upon year of tradition and structure, Australia seems to change readily with the times, whilst in the UK any changes are made much more slowly. I think the only thing that really surprises me about the relationship between Australia and the UK is the fact that Britain was responsible for the formation of my home country - which would imply that some of our youthful optimism and exuberance must have come from our parent nation. I’m yet to come across such emotions in the UK - and believe me, I’ve been looking.

I’d be really interested to hear from any other Australian-British expats - is it just me that feels this way about the relationship between our two nations?