Every dog has its day

City of London headhunter and father of three George Courtauld was on a train when he heard a boy with his arm in a sling confess that he didn't know why people were comparing him to Lord Nelson. The boy thought that Nelson was a character from Star Trek. Courtauld realised that a whole generation (well several actually) was growing up ignorant of the basic facts of British history.

So, purely for his own satisfaction, and the benefit of his three young sons, Courtauld used his Christmas holiday to draw up a wallchart, on seven A4 pages, of all the key events he thought his children should know. The chart was put up on the lavatory door at home and the concerned father resumed his City duties.

When friends heard about Courtauld's project they asked for copies and sensing that he might be on to something he began to compile a book. No commercial publishers were interested and one or two suggested that the more patriotic elements be removed. Courtauld decided to finance the book himself with the help of his friends.

the work which publishers were confident wasn’t right for the market sold 26,000 copies in its first week. For any book those would be impressive figures. For a work with an unknown author, no publishing sales team to get it into shops, no publicity department to push it in the press and no marketing machine to bring it to public attention, those sales, and the continuing success, are little short of amazing.

The Times article I got this from makes the point that these facts are not being learnt at school because of the current emphasis on empathy, ideology and narrow time periods. I'm not that old and I can confirm that I learnt most of the things in Courtauld's book from tv documentaries and BBC Radio 4.

I'm uncomfortable with the assertion that this book allows the Empire to strike back. British attitudes to the old Empire are enormously complicated. They range from total ignorance to the fact that it ever existed, to horrible guilt and open pride. How you feel may depend on the generation you come from. Personally I can't feel guilty about something that happened before I was born and I am interested in the Empire but I feel uncomfortable when people list its good points. I take the view that every dog has its day and all history comes in shades of grey. Rome has its day. Spain had its day. Britain had its day and now it's America's turn. Everyone's saying it'll be China next; which could make life very interesting.

American dominance bound to wither as Asia's confidence grows.