Learn English through Stories: England, Scoteland and Ireland | English Listening Practice

There are 3 stories in this video.

“England” by Rachel Bladon will introduce you to the beautiful country of England. England, being a small island country, often sparks curiosity among people. What are the common perceptions and impressions of this captivating nation? In this story, you will find an engaging and enlightening overview of England’s history, culture, traditions, and sports. Additionally, it showcases the renowned landmarks and notable individuals that contribute to England’s fame. If you seek a more comprehensive understanding of England, this story is definitely worth exploring. Shall we begin our journey now?

“Scotland” by Steve Flinders is a travel guidebook, and input takes readers on a journey through the enchanting landscapes, rich history, and vibrant culture of Scotland. From the picturesque Highlands to the bustling streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow, Flinders provides valuable insights and practical tips for travelers looking to explore this beautiful country. Whether you’re interested in exploring castles, tasting traditional Scottish cuisine, or experiencing the lively festivals, “Scotland” offers a captivating and informative companion for anyone planning to visit this remarkable destination.

“Ireland” by Tim Vicary will introduce you to the beautiful country of Ireland. The emerald green mountains and winding rivers make Ireland incredibly scenic. You have likely heard that the Irish are among the heaviest drinkers in Europe and are descendants of the red-haired Celts. The Irish step dance and bustling pubs are also famous. The story provides an overview of Ireland’s geography, sports, history, religion, language, music, dance, and wars. It also describes some of the most significant cities. An experienced teacher who lectures on “Northern Ireland” at the university wrote the book in an engaging way. His books are very popular among English learners.

“England” by Rachel Bladon: Level 5 / B2
“Scotland” by Steve Flinders: Level 2 / A2
“Ireland” by Tim Vicary: Level 3 / B1

Chapter 1: A Short History Back in England’s oldest times, people  lived in big groups called tribes.  They were farmers – they grew their  food, and kept animals for meat and eggs.  They lived in villages, in wooden or  mud houses, and there was often fighting   between the different tribes. Life was simple but dangerous.

Then in AD 43, forty thousand Roman soldiers   invaded England from the area  of Europe that is now Italy.  The Roman army was very  well-organized and had good weapons. The soldiers built a wall around  themselves every night so they were safe.  They moved across the country, fighting and  winning battles against the different tribes,  

And after four years they  controlled the south of England. The Romans had to fight for many years  before they controlled all of England.  They made many changes in the country, such  as building towns and cities, and good roads.  They brought a new language to  England – Latin – and made laws,  

So people knew what they could and could not do.  The religion of Christianity came  to England in Roman times too. The Romans never took control of  Scotland, which is north of England,   and Scottish tribes came to fight against  them in the north of England again and again. 

Because of this, in the second century  AD, the Romans built a wall to stop   the Scottish tribes coming to England. This wall between England and Scotland   was one hundred and twenty kilometers  long, and was called Hadrian’s Wall. For English people in towns and  cities, life in Roman times was good. 

Towns now had clean water and sewers (pipes  taking away dirty water), and there were   strong walls around them, so people felt safe. People came to the towns to buy and sell things,   and food became more interesting and enjoyable. To relax, people could go to special bath houses,  

Where they met their friends,  kept clean and exercised. But after AD 250, Roman  soldiers began to leave England.  They had to fight in other parts of the world,  and it was too expensive and difficult for them   to keep England safe. By AD 411, all the  

Roman soldiers had left England. Then the Anglo-Saxons, from Germany,   the Netherlands and Denmark, began to arrive. The Anglo-Saxons had come to England several times   before, but the Romans had always defeated them. Now, with the Romans gone, the English could not   win battles against the Anglo-Saxons, and  many Anglo-Saxons came to live in England.

The Anglo-Saxons did not like the Romans’ towns,   so they did not use them,  and the towns stayed empty.  The AngloSaxons built their own villages near  rivers or the sea and made wooden houses.  In their villages, they grew crops  – plants they could use for food. 

They also kept pigs, sheep and cows,  and caught fish and other animals. By AD 600 in England, the AngloSaxons had made  seven kingdoms – different parts of the country,   each controlled by its own king. The four main kingdoms were Northumbria,   Mercia, East Anglia and Wessex. The three minor kingdoms  

Were Essex, Kent and Sussex. In each of these kingdoms, the king had   nobles – important men who fought for him. The other people in the kingdom   were either peasants or slaves. Peasants were poor people who had some land,   but had to give money to the nobles. Slaves had nothing and had to work  

For other people for no money at all. People bought and sold slaves like animals. The Anglo-Saxons stayed in England, but in AD  793 a new group of people invaded the country.  The Vikings, from Norway, Sweden and  Denmark, wanted good farming land.  They came to England in strong  wooden ships, and soon they  

Took control of many parts of the country. But the Anglo-Saxon king of Wessex, Alfred the   Great, won a big battle against the Vikings. After this, part of England, called Danelaw,   was given to the Vikings, but the Vikings had to  promise not to invade other parts of the country.

After Alfred the Great died, the Viking and  Anglo-Saxon parts of England came together,   and England was now ruled as  one country with one king.  The Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons  continued to fight a lot, and for a   while England had Viking kings, but by 1042,  the Anglo-Saxon King Edward ruled England.

With Edward as the king, London became  the most important city in England.  Edward had many nobles, and he  let them become very powerful.  He had no children, so when he died, one  of his nobles, Harold, became the king.  But Edward’s cousin William, a  Norman (from the north of France),  

Believed that he should be the king of England.  In October 1066, William brought a big  Norman army from France to England.  The Normans fought against Harold and  his soldiers at the Battle of Hastings.  Harold was killed, and William the Conqueror,  as he was called, became the king of England.

William the Conqueror made many  important changes in England.  A lot of castles were built. One of these was the Tower of London,   which you can visit today. William the Conqueror   brought the feudal system to England. In the feudal system, the richest and  

Most important person was the king. Below the king were the nobles,   then the knights and then the serfs,  who were the poorest people in the land.  The king owned everything in the  country, but he gave a castle and  

Land to his nobles, and they paid him money. The nobles gave land to the knights, who had to   fight battles for the nobles and the king. The knights gave some land to the serfs,   who had to work for the knights  and give them food from the land.

William the Conqueror wanted to  know exactly what he had in England.  He sent people all around the  country, asking many questions,   and they made a big book called the Domesday Book.  The book showed how much farming land  there was in England and how many animals. 

We know a lot about life in Norman  England because of the Domesday Book. The time from William the Conqueror’s  rule until the fifteenth century in   England is often called the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages, most people lived in villages. 

The people of the village had to work for  the nobles, and give them crops and animals.  The nobles lived very well, in big houses and with  expensive food, but most people were very poor. Religion was very important in the Middle Ages,  and the Catholic Church became very powerful. 

From 1095 to 1291, soldiers went to other  countries to fight religious battles.  There was more fighting in the  fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,   as France and England fought the Hundred  Years War, hoping to win land from each other.  Many of the battles of the Hundred  Years War were fought by knights. 

As well as fighting battles for nobles and  for the king, knights also fought as a sport   in competitions called jousting tournaments. Young men who wanted to become knights had   to spend many years learning all  the things that a knight could do. In 1348, a terrible illness called  The Black Death came to England. 

Only about four million people lived in  England at that time, but in two years,   nearly one-and-a-half million of them died. From 1455-1485, there were terrible  battles between people who wanted the   kings of the country to be from different  families, and many more people died. 

Finally, in 1485, Henry Tudor became the first  Tudor king of England, King Henry the Seventh. Some of the Tudor kings and queens are  now very famous in England’s history.  Henry the Eighth, who became the king in 1509,  lived some of the time at the Tower of London, 

But he had other beautiful palaces  in and around London, including   the Palace of Westminster and Hampton Court. He and the people around him lived very well.  They wore the best clothes and ate wonderful food,   and at the palaces there was always  dancing, sport, poetry and music.

Henry enjoyed life, and he drank and ate too much. When he became the king, he was a sporty,   good-looking young man, but later  he became so fat he could not walk! England was a Catholic country, but Henry  the Eighth wanted England to leave the  

Catholic Church, so he started a new church. It was a Protestant church (a Christian church,   but for people who believe in a different  kind of Christianity) called the Church   of England, and he controlled it. Anyone who disagreed with the new  

Church was executed – killed for their crime. When Henry the Eighth was ruling England,   more than seventy thousand people  were killed because of crimes,  or because they disagreed with the king  about religion or other important things. Six years after Henry the Eighth died, his  oldest daughter Mary – the daughter he had  

With his first wife, Catherine of Aragon  – became Queen Mary the First of England.  She was a Catholic and wanted England  to be a Catholic country again,   but many people had left the Catholic  Church and had become Protestants.  Mary executed hundreds of Protestants  who refused to become Catholic again.

But in 1558, Mary died, and  her half-sister Elizabeth – the   daughter Henry had with his second  wife Anne Boleyn – became the queen.  Queen Elizabeth the First was a Protestant, but  she did not make Catholics follow her religion,  and she soon became one of the best  loved of England’s kings and queens.

The second half of the sixteenth century,  which was known as the Elizabethan period,   was a very important time for English literature. Many people liked to go to the theatre,   and William Shakespeare wrote a lot  of plays and poetry at this time.  Ships also began to travel  to other parts of the world. 

Sir Walter Raleigh sailed to America,   and Sir Francis Drake became the first  Englishman to sail around the world. But life in England was also very difficult  for many people in the Elizabethan period.  There was less work in farming now,  and a lot of people were very poor. 

There was a lot of crime, but no police,   and when people were caught for  crimes, they were often executed. Alter Queen Elizabeth the First  died in 1603, kings and queens   called the Stuarts came to power in England. The Stuarts were from Scotland, and for the first  

Time, they ruled both England and Scotland. The second of the Stuart kings   was Charles the First. He argued with Parliament   because he spent a lot of money fighting wars  in Europe, and in 1642, he started a civil war. 

For seven years, the King’s men and Parliaments  men fought against each other, and thousands died.  But with Oliver Cromwell as leader, Parliaments  army became very strong and fought very well,   and in 1649, they won the war. Charles the First was executed,  

And for eleven years England had no king or queen. The country was ruled by Cromwell and Parliament.  Cromwell was a Puritan – a Protestant who  believed in a simple, hard-working life –  and when he ruled, there was no sport or  dancing in England, and theatres were closed.

When Cromwell died, England  was ready to have a king again,   and the Stuarts came to power once more.  There were some difficult times for England  in the second half of the seventeenth century.  In 1665, another terrible illness came to London  and killed nearly seventy thousand people, 

And a year later, large parts of London  were burnt down in the Great Fire of London. There were many other changes at this time too.  England now traded – bought and sold  things – with many other countries,  so English people could get different  foods like tomatoes, chocolate,  

Coffee and tea for the first time. People continued to work on the land,   but now there were other jobs, in cloth-making or  glass-making, and in the coal or iron industries.  London was rebuilt with wider roads  and many beautiful new buildings,  

And scientists like Sir Isaac Newton began to do  important work and learn many interesting things.  England started its first colonies too. These were other parts of the world,   like America, which were ruled by England. For the first time in the seventeenth century,   people from England went to  live and work in these places.

There was one more important change as  England entered the eighteenth century.  In 1707, the Act of Union brought England,   Wales and Scotland together with  one parliament as Great Britain. The eighteenth and early nineteenth  centuries were called the Georgian period   because Britain’s kings were George  the First, Second, Third and Fourth. 

But during this time, kings  became much less powerful,   and Parliament really began to rule the country. An industrial revolution began in Britain too:   machines were built, and they were  used in many different industries.  People could now make many things very quickly,  and because of this towns began to grow.

In 1783, Britain lost the American War  of Independence, so America was no longer   ruled by Britain and became independent. Britain did not have its old American   colonies anymore, but it now found new ones. In that same year, France gave its colonies   in Canada to Britain, and by the  end of the eighteenth century, 

Britain had won many battles in India, which soon  became an important part of the British Empire.  This was a great time for exploration: travelling   to different places to find new things. The famous sailor Captain Cook visited many   new lands and was the first European  to go to Australia and New Zealand.

In 1801, Ireland and Britain came together as  the United Kingdom (UK) with one parliament.  (Today, Northern Ireland is the only  part of Ireland which belongs to the UK.)  The ruler of this new UK, from 1837  until 1901, was Queen Victoria.  Victoria ruled for longer than any  other English or British king or queen,  

And she was much loved by many of her people. In the Victorian period, the British  Empire became bigger and more important,   and the industrial revolution continued. The country was growing, but at first   this made life difficult for many people. More and more factories were built in the UK,  

And factory work was very hard and very dangerous. Towns got bigger and bigger, but people put   their rubbish and dirty water in the  streets, so there was a lot of illness. But soon important new changes started to happen. Towns became cleaner, and in 1880,  

All children aged 5-10 began to go to school. People had electric lights and telephones for   the first time, and because the railways grew,  they could now travel around the country easily.  By 1901, when Queen Victoria died, the  modern United Kingdom was arriving. Chapter 2: England in the Modern UK

In the early 1900s, the UK was one  of the most powerful countries in   the world, with a big empire. The industrial revolution was   changing many peoples lives, and steamships  and cars were widely used for the first time. Rich people lived very well, with beautiful  houses and servants, but poor people had  

Few clothes and little to eat, and their children were often ill.  Life was difficult for women  in the UK at this time too.  People expected women to stay at home with their  families, and they could not get well-paid jobs. 

It was very difficult for women to go  to university, and they could not vote.  In 1903, a group of women called the  suffragettes, led by Emmeline Pankhurst,   organized meetings and marches, asking  for Parliament to give women the vote. In 1914, the UK and its allies,  France and Russia, went to war  

With Germany and Austria-Hungary. Many young men chose to fight. They believed the war would be very  short, but it went on for four years,   and nearly three quarters of a million  soldiers from the UK were killed.  While the men were fighting, women  had to do the men’s jobs at home. 

Women soon showed that they could work in  farming, factories and even in the coal industry. After helping their country  to win the First World War,   workers and women in England wanted better lives. Men got their jobs at home back from the women,  

So most women were no longer working, but in 1918, women over thirty were given   the vote for the first time. From 1929, women, like men,   could vote from the age of twenty-one. A new political party for working   people – the Labour Party – became  important in politics at this time, 

And in 1926, half a million workers went on strike  to fight against low pay and long working hours.  But life became even more  difficult for workers in 1929,   when the world went into an economic depression.  Prices fell, there was less trade,  and many shops and factories closed. 

By 1931, nearly three million people  in the UK had lost their jobs. The First World War was fought mainly  in battles on fields in France,  but almost everyone in the UK had a difficult  life because of the Second World War (1939-45). 

Many children had to leave their homes  and go to live in the countryside.  This was because at the end of 1940 and the  beginning of 1941, the Germans dropped many   bombs on London and other cities. This was called the Blitz.  Many people lost their homes and their families,  

And everyone had to live on rations – they could  only buy fixed amounts of many kinds of food. The Second World War ended in 1945, and big  changes were made by a new Labour government.  Most importantly, the UK now had a National  Health Service, so anyone who was ill could  

See a doctor or go to hospital without paying. The government also now gave money to help people   who were ill or old, or had lost their jobs. Because of the Education Act of 1944,   there were also free places in schools  for children up to the age of fifteen.

Another change after the Second World  War was that more women went to work.  They had shown that they could do men’s jobs,  and many of them had done important war work.  In some homes, nothing was different for  women, but over the next fifty years,  

Women in the UK slowly saw changes for  themselves in education, work and at home.  Their lives would never be the same again. After the Second World War, many of the  UK’s colonies wanted to rule themselves.  The south of Ireland had already  become independent from the UK in 1921, 

So the country had now become the United  Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  People from the colonies had  fought for the UK during the war,   and they felt they had won their freedom. In 1947, India, once a very important part   of the Empire, became independent. In the next twenty years, most of  

The other colonies also did the same. They became independent, but joined the   Commonwealth, an organization of the  governments of the UK’s old colonies. The UK needed more workers to help  rebuild the country after the war,  so the government invited other  Europeans and people from the colonies  

Of the old Empire to move there. Hoping to find good new jobs,   many people came, mainly from Europe,  India, Pakistan and the West Indies.  In 1945, there were only a few  thousand non-white people in the UK,   but by 1970, there were 1.4 million. Sadly, there were often problems in  

Later years when some of the people born  in the UK felt that immigrants and their   families were taking too many jobs. There is some racism – when people   do not like others because they have a  different colour skin – in the UK today. 

But most people do not like racism and want  all people in the UK to live together happily. In 1952, Elizabeth the Second became  the new queen of the UK, and millions   of people watched her coronation on TV. The first TVs were made in the 1920s,  

But many English people bought TVs  for the first time for the coronation,  and in the 1950s, TV started to become  an important part of life in England. There were many changes in the UK in the  second half of the twentieth century. 

Many of the country’s traditional industries,  for example iron, cloth, coal and shipbuilding,  began to have problems, and people working  in those industries lost their jobs.  New industries became more important, for example  banking and pharmaceuticals (drugs and medicines). England today is a very different place  than it was one hundred years ago. 

Today, England is one of the most  multicultural countries in the world,  and many people from the West Indies, Africa,   India, China, South-East Asia  and eastern Europe live here.  More than two hundred and fifty  different languages are spoken in London!  Probably because of this, there  are also many religions in England. 

England is a Christian country, but  different religions are freely followed,  and there are many Hindu, Jewish,  Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist people here. Society has changed in England too. One hundred  years ago, most people married in their early   twenties or younger and then had children, but today many more people live alone,  

And most do not get married or have children  until they are in their thirties or older. England’s place in the world, as part  of the UK, is also very different.  The UK does not have an empire now, but  it is an important country in Europe 

And became a member of the European  Union (then called the EEC) in 1973.  The UK works very closely with the  United States of America (USA),  and it also continues to be  a member of the Commonwealth,   together with fifty-two other  countries from around the world. 

Members of the Commonwealth meet every two  years to decide how they can best work together. Chapter 3: Traditions Because England is such an old  country, it has many traditions.  Some of these have come from important  or interesting moments in history.  Some have come from other parts of the world. 

Others have come from England’s many kings or  queens, or from its long religious history. There are special days and festivals throughout  the year in England, but only a few are bank   holidays – days when people do not have to work. Christmas is one of the most important  

Religious festivals in England. Christmas Day, 25th December, and the next day,   Boxing Day, are always bank holidays, and most  people spend this time with family or friends.  Traditionally, people eat turkey on Christmas  Day, with Brussels sprouts and cranberry sauce; 

And for dessert there is usually Christmas  pudding, a type of cake made with dried fruit. Not long before Christmas, people decorate  their houses and send cards to people they know.  On Christmas Day, there are presents from  friends and family, and, for the children,   from Father Christmas (or Santa Claus). 

Children believe that Father Christmas  brings the presents on 24th December,   Christmas Eve, and leaves them to be  opened on the morning of Christmas Day. New Year’s Eve is also important in England. Many  people go to the Houses of Parliament in London 

To hear Big Ben (the bell inside the  big clock tower) strike midnight and to   see the wonderful fireworks near the River Thames.  Other people meet up with friends and  family, and make New Year’s Resolutions:  they decide what things they will  do (or not do!) in the next year.

On Valentine’s Day, 14th February, people give  cards or presents to the people they love,  but April Fool’s Day, on 1st April, is  a very different kind of celebration.  On that day, people play jokes on their friends  and family, and call them an ‘April Fool!’.  People think April Fool’s Day  started because, before 1562,  

1st April was the first day of the year. In 1562, this was changed, so 1st January   became the first day of the year. But many people were slow to remember   the change, so they were laughed at for  celebrating New Year’s Day on 1st April. There is often special food  for festivals in England. 

Shrove Tuesday, in February, comes the day before  the start of Lent, the forty days before Easter.  In the past, people stopped eating  the most important foods – butter,   eggs and flour – during Lent. So on Shrove Tuesday,   they made pancakes with these foods, and ate  butter, eggs and flour for the last time. 

People continue to eat pancakes today, and  there are many pancake races around the country:  people have to run, throwing  pancakes up and down in a frying pan!  Today, many people try to give something up for  Lent too – often sweets, cakes or chocolate!

After Lent comes Easter, another religious  festival, and for people who go to church,   a very important time of year. Easter comes in the spring, and many   people give each other Easter eggs and Easter  bunnies (little rabbits) made from chocolate.  For children, there are often Easter  Egg Hunts, when little eggs are hidden  

In the house or garden. People also eat hot cross   buns at Easter – warm sweet bread with  dried fruit inside and a cross on top. May Day in England is on the first day of May, and  there is a bank holiday on or very near that day. 

This is usually the start of warmer  weather in England, and sometimes   people celebrate with Maypole dancing –  dancing around a big pole with ribbons. Halloween, on 31st October, has become  a popular festival in modern times.  On this night, children dress up as witches,  ghosts and other frightening things, and go  

From house to house, calling ‘Trick or Treat’. The neighbours give them sweets and other nice   things, but if they have nothing to give,  the children play a trick, or joke, on them. A strange festival is held on 5th November. On that day in 1605, a man called Guy Fawkes  

And a group of friends tried to  blow up the Houses of Parliament.  They wanted to do this because King  James and his nobles were not treating   the Catholics in the country well. But the king’s soldiers found Guy   Fawkes in the Houses of Parliament  and stopped him and his friends.

Now on 5th November every year,   there are bonfires and fireworks all  over England on ‘Guy Fawkes Night’. Another day that is important because of something  in history is Remembrance Day, on 11th November.  At eleven o’clock in the morning on that day, at  exactly the time when the First World War ended in  

1918, many people are silent for two minutes. They remember the many men and women   who have lost their lives in wars. Many people wear paper poppies – red   flowers – on their coats at this time too. Poppies grew on the battlefields of France  

After the First World War ended, so they make  people remember the terrible days of the war. Because kings and queens have always  been so important in England’s history,   there are many royal traditions. One important tradition is   the State Opening of Parliament. On this day, the Queen goes from her home at  

Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament in a  gold carriage and then reads ‘the Queen’s speech’.  This tells people what the government  wants to do in the next year. Another important yearly royal tradition  is called ‘Trooping the Colour’.  To celebrate the Queen’s birthday,  more than a thousand soldiers and  musicians march from Buckingham  

Palace to Whitehall and back again, and  the Queen goes past them in her carriage. On most days at Buckingham Palace, you  can also see the ‘Changing of the Guard’.  This is when one group of soldiers who  were guarding the Queen leave the palace,   and another group arrives. The soldiers who guard the  

Queen wear red coats and tall  hats, made from real bearskin.  They can march in front of the palace, but  when they are standing, they must not move. There are many important traditions in  sport in England. One famous example   is the Oxford and Cambridge boat race. Oxford and Cambridge are the two oldest  

Universities in England, and because both  universities are in cities with rivers,  Oxford and Cambridge students  have always enjoyed rowing.  In rowing, two, four or eight people move a boat  through water with long wooden sticks called oars.  They sit with their backs  towards the front of the boat,  

So there is often a person called a cox  at the back, telling them where to go.  In 1829, students from Oxford and  Cambridge decided to have a rowing race,   and since then there has been a race  on the Thames every year in spring.

What is traditional English food and drink? Fish  and chips are probably England’s most famous dish.  Fish and chips first became popular in  the 1860s, when the railways opened and   trains began to bring fish from the  east coast of England to the cities. 

Fish and chips are usually eaten as takeaway food  (food that is not eaten in a cafe or restaurant),   with the fish wrapped in paper, and  the chips covered in salt and vinegar.  Today, Indian and Chinese takeaways  are just as popular as fish and chips.

England is also famous for its breakfasts. Very few people eat a full English breakfast   every day, but you can usually  get one in hotels or cafes.  The English breakfast is toast, eggs  and sausages, often with tomatoes,   beans, hash browns (potato  cakes) and mushrooms too!

Bangers (sausages) and mash (a  mixture of potatoes with butter   and milk) is another traditional dish in England.  The sausages are often called bangers because  in times of war, when food was rationed,  there was usually a lot of water in the sausages.  When they were fried, they often blew up!

The traditional Sunday lunch is  a roast dinner, with roast beef,   roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding (a  cooked mixture of eggs, flour and milk).  However, many English people now  eat fewer traditional dishes,   and English people now eat lots of different  kinds of food from all around the world. 

But some traditional English food  continues to be very popular.  English farmers make wonderful cheeses  like red leicester, cheddar and Stilton,  and at farmers’ markets all around the  country people can buy fantastic meat,   fish, fruit, vegetables and bread. Tea, of course, is one of the  most important drinks in England, 

And in cafes and at home many  people like to have afternoon tea,   which is tea with cakes and sandwiches. English people also like to go to the  pub to have a drink and perhaps to eat.  These are places where  people come together to talk,   play games, or watch football or rugby matches.

In different areas of England there  are some very strange traditions.  At many fairs, you can see Morris dancing  (people in costumes dancing to music with sticks,   swords and handkerchiefs). In the Lake District,   people have a ‘gurning’ competition every year. Gurning is trying to make a very strange face,  

For example by lifting the bottom of  your mouth up above the top of it!  And in a village near Gloucester  there is a cheese rolling competition,   in which people run after a cheese which is  moving like a wheel down a very big hill! Chapter 4: Cities and Sights

England has fifty cities and many smaller towns,  and there are lots of things to see and do there. The biggest city, and  England’s capital, is London.  Nearly eight million people live in London  – more than in any other European city.  The country’s government is there,  and for people in many different jobs,  

London is the most important place to be for work. For visitors, too, London has many  of England’s most interesting sights   and is one of the most important places to visit.  London has many areas, which are often very  different, even if they are very close!

Whitehall and Westminster are the areas where  you can see some of London’s most famous sights.  Here, next to the River Thames, are  Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.  At one time, England’s kings and queens lived in  these buildings, and they were called the Palace  

Of Westminster, but today Parliament meets here. Near the Houses of Parliament is Downing Street,   where the UK’s prime minister – the leader  – lives, and where the government meets.  Also near here is Westminster Abbey, a large  and very important church where England’s  

Kings and queens have had their coronations  since the time of William the Conqueror. Following the Thames to the north, and then  towards the east from Whitehall and Westminster,   you come to the West End. Here you can find theatres,   restaurants, cinemas and clubs. Covent Garden, where there was once a big  

Market, is now a great place to go shopping, or to have a coffee and watch the street   entertainers – actors, musicians, dancers  and others who do small shows outside. Further east is a small area called  the City of London, which was the most  

Important part of London in the Middle Ages. It is now one of the great financial centers   of the world – a place where money comes in and  out, and where England’s big banks work from.  Also here is St Paul’s Cathedral, which was  built by the great architect Sir Christopher  

Wren, and the Tower of London, a  castle from the eleventh century. London is also famous for its  large and beautiful parks.  Just minutes from the West End, people can walk,   exercise and relax in the large green areas  of Hyde Park, Green Park and St James’s Park. 

Many people visit London for its museums and  art galleries, and most of these are free.  The Tate Modern is the worlds largest modern  art gallery, and at the British Museum,   there are several kilometers of rooms, with  more than seventy thousand things to see.

Many visitors to London like to  take a ride on the London Eye,   the largest Ferris wheel in Europe. From the top of the Eye,   at one hundred and thirty-five meters, you can  see many of London’s most famous buildings. Not far from London, you  can visit three interesting  

And important royal places – Windsor Castle, which continues   to be used by the royal family today,  Hampton Court Palace and Kew Gardens. It is less than 100 kilometers from London  to Oxford, one of England’s most beautiful   cities and home to its oldest university. Here you can walk around the fantastic old  

Buildings of colleges like  Christ Church and Magdalen,   many of them more than five hundred years old. Oxford also has England’s oldest museum,   the Ashmolean, as well as parks,  gardens and lovely river walks. Oxford is near a famous area of  England called the Cotswolds. 

Close to the green hills there are beautiful  villages, with pretty houses made from   gold-coloured stone and fine old churches. Many visitors come to this area,   and there are tourist shops and afternoon  tea rooms in a lot of bigger villages. Oxford is not very far from  Stratford-upon-Avon, famous as the home  

Town of William Shakespeare, the great writer. In this pretty river town, you can visit   Shakespeare’s old house and also see a play at  the theatre of the Royal Shakespeare Company. At Warwick, just a few kilometers away, is one  of the greatest medieval castles in England. 

With its great towers and walls,  dark dungeons and beautiful gardens,   Warwick Castle is one of the  most impressive in England. The University of Cambridge is  almost as old as Oxford’s, and   the two cities are like each other in many ways. Like Oxford, Cambridge is a city of old colleges,  

Many from the late thirteenth  and early fourteenth centuries.  With its gardens, green spaces and river,  Cambridge is a lovely city to walk around.  Two of the most famous places  in Cambridge are King’s College,   with its beautiful chapel (a small church), and the Backs, an area of green land around  

The River Cam from where you  can see many of the colleges. Moving north, England’s second  biggest city is Birmingham,   which was an important center  during the industrial revolution.  Today, Birmingham is a very multicultural city and  is home to the National Exhibition Centre (NEC),  

Where many big shows and events are held. Many people come to Birmingham to visit its big,   modern shopping center, the Bull Ring,  but few tourists spend a lot of time here. Further north of Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent  has been famous since the seventeenth century   for its pottery industry – the industry of making  

Objects such as cups, plates and bowls.  Here you can visit the pottery factories and  buy pottery cheaply from the factory shops. York is one of the most interesting  cities of the north of England.  It was a Roman city, and for  many years it was an important  

Place for religion and politics in England. During medieval times – the Middle Ages – there   was a strong wool trade in York, and because  of this, many other traders came to live here.  The city feels very medieval even today,  with its narrow streets and old walls. 

Many tourists come to visit the city and to see  York Minster, the city’s old cathedral (a large   and important church), with its beautiful windows. York was an important city when the railways   were first built in England, and now it  is home to the National Railway Museum. Twenty-five kilometers from York is Castle Howard,  

One of the best of England’s  stately homes (big country houses).  Stately homes were built for the  most important families of England,   who normally had homes in London too. These homes were places where the king   or queen could visit and where important people  could have meetings about politics or government.

Two very exciting cities in the north  of England are Liverpool and Manchester.  Liverpool, which is on the sea,  became important in the eighteenth   century because of trade with America. Many immigrants from the West Indies,   China and Ireland arrived in Liverpool  when they came to England, so Liverpool  

Was one of England’s first multicultural cities.  But by the 1970s and 1980s, ships  were no longer coming to Liverpool.  The city’s old buildings stayed  empty, and it became very poor.  Since 2004, a lot of money has been spent in  Liverpool, and Albert Dock, where ships used  

To arrive, is now an exciting new area with  restaurants, museums, shops and art galleries. Liverpool was home to The Beatles, and  many people come here to do ‘Beatles Tours’  and to visit the clubs where the  famous band played or see the homes  

Where John, Paul, George and Ringo lived. In Liverpool, you can also see some wonderful   art at the Walker Art Gallery or Tate Liverpool, visit the two cathedrals, or take a boat across   the River Mersey and look back at  the famous sights of this great city.

Just fifty kilometers east of Liverpool  is another big city, Manchester.  Manchester has some of the most  exciting modern buildings in England.  Its cafes, clubs and nightlife make it one of the  best cities in the country for many young people. 

But like Liverpool, Manchester had a difficult  time in the second half of the twentieth century.  Once the most important city in the  world for cotton, Manchester’s old   industries were coming to an end by the  1950s, and many people lost their jobs. 

But new industries began to grow, and at  the start of the twenty-first century,   parts of the city were rebuilt, making  Manchester an exciting city once more. Blackpool is very different  from Liverpool and Manchester.  With its long beaches, hotels and piers,   Blackpool is a popular holiday town. Here you can eat fish and chips,  

Go to amusement arcades and see the  coloured lights on Blackpool Tower. Some of the most interesting sights of  England are in the far north of the country.  Durham Cathedral, almost nine  hundred years old, is here,   and also the Angel of the North,  the biggest sculpture in England. 

The sculpture – of an angel with very wide wings  – was built on an old coal mine by Antony Gormley,   the same artist who made Another Place. He wanted people to remember that for   two hundred years, mining was one of  the biggest industries in this area.

People pass the Angel of the North  as they drive to Newcastle-upon-Tyne.  Like Manchester and Liverpool, Newcastle is  another industrial city that now has museums,   art galleries and an exciting nightlife. Near Newcastle is the end of Hadrians Wall,  parts of which can be seen very clearly. 

Today, the border with Scotland is further north  than it was when the Romans built Hadrians Wall.  Just a few kilometers from today’s  border is another interesting sight,   Holy Island, or Lindisfarne. You cannot get to the island at high  

Tide – when the sea comes in closest to the land – but at other times you can walk or drive across   to it and see the castle that was  built here in the sixteenth century. Back in the south of England, and  west of London, there are more sights  

And interesting cities to see. Bath, so-called because of its   famous Roman baths, is a lovely little city. The old Roman baths are some of the best-kept   in Europe, and in the eighteenth  century, many rich and important   people came here to ‘take the waters’. Big, fine houses were built for them,  

And so Bath has many Georgian streets  and buildings, with pretty parks too. Just a few kilometers further west from Bath, but  very different, is the big, busy city of Bristol.  Bristol, once a very big port, now has a strong  electronics industry and is important in the  

Creative media – film, TV, radio and fashion. It is also the biggest cultural center in   the area, with a busy nightlife. As in many other cities in England,   the old docks – the area where the ships  used to come in – have now been changed  

Into an area for restaurants, shops and museums. One of the most famous sights of Bristol is the   Clifton Suspension Bridge, which was made by  the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunei. Many visitors to Bristol make the  short journey south to Glastonbury.  Here you can visit Glastonbury Abbey,  which was built in the seventh century. 

Glastonbury is also famous for the music  festival held there most years in June.   It is the biggest music festival in the country. Stonehenge, east of Glastonbury,  is one of the wonders of the world.  The big stone circles here  were made between 3000 BC  

And 1600 BC – they are as old as Egypt’s pyramids!  One of the most interesting  things about Stonehenge is   that some of the stones are very heavy – up to forty tones – but they came from   hundreds of kilometers away, in Wales. People believe they were probably brought  

And pulled to Stonehenge in simple boats. But  no one is sure how they got to Stonehenge.  On the longest day of the year, the  sun rises across the stone circles.  Because of this, many people think the circles  were perhaps some kind of ancient calendar.

In the county of Cornwall, in the far south-west  of England, you can visit the Eden Project.  Here you can see plants and  trees from many different places,   and the largest non-wild rainforest in the world. Brighton, on the south coast, became an  important town in the mid eighteenth century,  

When people began to enjoy swimming in the sea. The Prince of Wales (later King George the Fourth)   started to come to Brighton in the 1780s, and  in 1815, the Royal Pavilion was built for him.  The Royal Pavilion, which has a strange mixture  of Indian and Chinese building styles, is one of  

The most interesting buildings in Brighton today. Like Bath, Brighton has some beautiful Georgian   buildings, but it is a fun town too. Here you can walk on the pier,   beside the sea, or through the Lanes – narrow streets that were once part of the  

Old fishing village of Brighton, and which  are now busy with shops and restaurants. North-east of Brighton, on the road to  Dover, Canterbury is a place full of history.  It was an important Roman town, and in AD 602,  the first cathedral in England was built here.

The cathedral was rebuilt in 1070 and  continues to be very important today:   the Archbishop of Canterbury is  the head of the Church of England. As you can see, there are lots of  exciting places to visit in England! Chapter 5: Nature and the Environment

England has some exciting and beautiful  cities, and many interesting sights.  But for a lot of people, the best  thing about England is its countryside.  Mostly, England is a place of green  hills, but it also has lakes, rivers,   a long coastline that is very different  in different parts of the country and,  

In the north, mountains. Because there are so   many different kinds of environments in  England, there is a lot of wildlife too.  Around the coast you can see seals,  sharks, dolphins and otters; and rabbits,   foxes, squirrels and deer are just some of the  animals that move around the countryside freely. 

Nearly two hundred and thirty different  kinds of birds live in England, and   another two hundred visit for part of the year. There are also many different kinds of trees,   plants and wild flowers growing  in the English countryside. The weather in England is temperate –  almost never very, very hot, or very,  

Very cold – with lots of rain all year. It is usually warmest between June and   September, but the weather in any month  can be very different from year to year. England has ten national parks beautiful areas  of countryside where is the special laws keep  

The land and a wildlife safe. The biggest of these is the   Lake District, in the north-west of England. The Lake District has the highest mountains in the   country, with sixteen big lakes lying below them. With its beautiful scenery, the Lake District   is not surprisingly a very  popular place for tourists. 

Most visitors come to walk in the mountains,  to go on boats on the lakes and to enjoy   the area’s pretty stone-built villages. There is also a lot of wildlife in the Lake   District, and it is the only place in the country  where golden eagles – birds of prey – live.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many  poets began to write about the Lake District.  The most famous of these was William Wordsworth,   who lived there for sixty years. The poems and books that he wrote   about the Lake District made many people  come and visit the area for the first time.

Another famous writer from the  Lake District is Beatrix Potter,   whose children’s books about Peter Rabbit  and his friends are famous around the world.  Today, a lot of tourists visit the house near  Hawkshead where she wrote many of her books. There are four other national  parks in the north of England. 

The Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales and the  Northumberland National Park are all part of   the Pennines, an area of low mountains  in the middle of the north of England.  The Pennine Way, a walking  trail 429 kilometers long,   goes along these mountains, which make a  kind of natural border between east and west.

East of the Pennines is the north  of England’s other national park,   the North York Moors, between York in  the south and Middlesbrough in the north.  In all these northern national parks, you  can find deep valleys covered with forests,   high moorland and wonderful caves (natural holes in the rock in the  

Hillside), and they are great places  for walking, cycling or horse-riding. People who have read Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre,   The Tenant of Wildfell Hall or any  of the other books by Charlotte,  Emily and Anne Bronte, probably feel that they  already know the countryside of the Pennines.

The Bronte sisters lived in Haworth in  Yorkshire, and they describe the windy,   heather-covered moorland of this  area in many of their books. The history of the New Forest, about one  hundred kilometers south-west of London,   begins more than nine hundred years ago.

William the Conqueror wanted this area to be  kept for hunting, and he and his nobles enjoyed   looking for deer and other animals here. Parts of the New Forest, which is now   a national park, have probably not  changed very much since these times. 

Today, cows walk freely around this area, with its  ancient trees and open land covered with heather.  Visitors here can also see beautiful  wild flowers, deer and big birds of prey.  But most famous are the ponies – about  three thousand of them – that live in  

The New Forest, as they have for many years. You can often see them walking around the villages   of the New Forest, and you must be ready to stop  your car when one decides to cross the road! Between Exeter and Plymouth, the  national park of Dartmoor in Devon  

Is the biggest and wildest area of open  countryside in the south of England. A lot of Dartmoor is moorland  and covered in heather,   but Dartmoor is also famous for its  many tors – hills with rocks at the top.  Sheep, cows and ponies walk freely around  on Dartmoor, and many birds live here too.

North of Dartmoor is the national park  of Exmoor, a beautiful area of moorland,   forests, valleys and farmland, which goes across the counties   of Somerset and Devon, right up to the coast. Here you can see otters in nearly every river,   wild red deer, bats and some  very special butterflies.

Devon is not only famous for Dartmoor and Exmoor. The counties of Devon and Cornwall are very   popular with tourists because  of their lovely countryside  and because they get more hours of  sunlight than anywhere else in England.  Away from the coast, the green fields  are full of wild flowers in the summer,  

And narrow little roads with tall hedges at the  side go from one pretty village to the next.  By the sea, there are golden beaches and  little rocky coves, and on the north coast,   the big waves in places like Newquay  make surfing a very popular sport. 

Off the coasts of Devon and Cornwall,  you can see basking sharks and porpoises,   and on Lundy Island there  are puffins in April and May. Another beautiful area to visit in this  part of England are the Scilly Isles,  about one hundred small islands  forty-five kilometers away from   Land’s End, in England’s far south-west corner. 

Each island is very different, and  people live on only five of them. Along England’s south coast, big  white cliffs – large rocks next to   the sea – look out onto the English Channel. The rocks in the cliffs on part of this coast,  

Which is called the Jurassic Coast  and goes from East Devon to Dorset,   are one hundred and eighty five million years old. Here you can easily find wonderful fossils – rocks   with the shape of animals and  plants from ancient times. 

You can see lots of fossils here because  of erosion – the rock is very soft,   and every day the sea breaks bits  of the rock away from the cliffs.  Erosion has made parts of this coast  very beautiful: the perfect little cove  

At Lulworth in Dorset and the famous arch  of Durdle Door were both made by erosion. England’s newest national park is the South  Downs, which comes down to the sea near Brighton.  You can walk through the beautiful green hills  of the South Downs on the South Downs Way, 

A special walking trail which ends at the enormous  white cliffs of Beachy Head on the south coast. Most of the North Sea coast of England (on the  east side of the country) is very flat and sandy,   with a lot of saltmarsh – wet, muddy  areas with grass growing on them. 

There are many sea birds here and also, at  Blakeney Point in Norfolk, several hundred seals.  This is the best place in England to see seals,   and many people take special  boat trips to visit them. The national park of the Norfolk  Broads is also in this area. 

Here, three rivers go across flat land to the sea,   and are so wide in places,  they are almost like lakes.  Many people like to visit this area by boat  or by bike, enjoying the wonderful birdlife. England has a lot of beautiful countryside, but  there are many problems for the environment. 

Factories, vehicles and modern farming can  make the air, rivers and the sea dirty,   and this is bad for plants and wildlife. Many animals also lose their homes when   forests are cut down or land is  taken for building houses on.  People believe that global warming (the  Earth getting hotter because of dangerous  

Gases in the air) is bringing new  problems to the countryside too.  It is because of these dangers to the environment  that the national parks of England were made,  and there are many organizations that work to  keep wildlife and the English countryside safe. 

The UK government is also working with  governments from other countries to try   to find ways to fight global warming. English people hope that they, and the   tourists who come to their country, will always be  able to enjoy the wonderful natural environment. Chapter 6: Daily Life

For most English teenagers, daily  life is mainly about school.  Education is free for all children  aged five to sixteen. It is also   compulsory – everyone must have an education. As well as state schools, which are run by the   government, there are also independent  schools, which families have to pay for. 

About six percent of children in  England go to independent schools.  Some families also home-school:  they teach their children at home. Children start their compulsory  education in primary school when   they are four or five years old, and at  age eleven, they move to secondary school. 

The school year is from September to July, with  two-week holidays at Christmas and in the spring,   and a longer six-week holiday in the summer. Between each of these holidays, there is a   one-week break called Half Term, so  the school year has got three terms.

Most state schools follow the national curriculum,  which tells teachers what subjects to teach.  At the end of Year 11, when students are  about sixteen, they take exams called GCSEs   in many different subjects. Some of these subjects,   such as math’s and English, are compulsory,  but students can also choose some subjects. 

After their exams, some students leave education,  and others go to technical colleges, where they   learn how to do the jobs they are interested in. Others stay at school and study for one   or two more years to do exams  called AS-levels and A-levels,  

This time in only three or four subjects. Some students who do well in their A-levels   will go on to study at university  for another three to six years. Most jobs in England today are in the service  industry – in places like hotels, restaurants,  

Shops, computer companies and banks. Many English people work very hard.  The working day is usually from nine o’clock  until five o’clock, with an hour at lunchtime,   five days a week, but often  people work much longer hours. It can be very difficult for  young people to find a job,  

Even if they have studied at university. Some do more training, learning how to   do new things. Others take unpaid  work, so they can get experience. In the evenings and at the weekends, many  English people enjoy watching or playing sport,   watching TV, playing computer games,  or reading books or newspapers. 

Sometimes they go out to the  cinema or to a restaurant,   or to see their favourite band play music. Sometimes they just go shopping or   spend time with their friends. Children and teenagers often go   to weekly clubs, for example Scouts,  martial arts, dance, drama or music. 

Most teenagers also have a mobile phone,  so that they can talk to their friends   or send them text messages, and an  MP3 player for listening to music. There are lots of things to do at the  weekends and on holidays in England.  Many families go out together to  museums, beaches or theme parks,  

Or for walks or cycle rides in the countryside. People also invite friends to their houses for   meals, a cup of tea, or to  watch a sports match on TV. Life in England is very different if you  live in the city or in the countryside. 

In the city, public transport is usually very  good, and there are many buses and trains.  London also has an underground  train system, called the Tube,   and you can travel around Manchester by tram.  But in the countryside, people  often have to walk and drive a lot.

Most people who live in cities have homes  in the suburbs – the areas around a city.  Cities often also have big estates. These are places built mainly for   people to live in, with lots of houses or  flats, and usually some shops and a park. 

There are lots of different kinds of  homes for people to live in in England.  Some houses are more than six hundred  years old, others are very modern;  some people live in houses with several  different rooms and a garden, others   live in small apartments called flats. In the past, people in England used to  

Buy their own homes, but houses and  flats have now become very expensive.  For young people with little money, it  is now very difficult to buy a home,   and more people now rent: they pay money  to someone to live in their house or flat.

Most English people usually eat at  home because eating out – eating in   a restaurant or cafe – is expensive. Breakfast is often toast or cereal,   and while some people have a big meal at midday,  others just have a sandwich for lunch and then  

Eat their main meal in the evening. This meal can be called supper,   dinner or tea. But for some families, ‘tea is  a cup of tea with a biscuit or a piece of cake! Many people now buy their food and all the other  shopping they need from big supermarkets, which  

Are on the outside of almost every town and city. These supermarkets are often open all day and in   the evening, and some now stay open all night too. Other shops usually open at nine o’clock and   close at half-past five or six, with  shorter opening hours on Sundays.

Life in England is busier than ever today. Travel around any English city at rush   hour – when people are going to or from work –  and it seems that no one has time for anything.  But over a morning coffee or the  important afternoon cup of tea, 

Most English people can always find the  time to talk about sport or the weather,   or think of something to laugh about. Chapter 7: Sports Sport is very important in England, and people  enjoy going to big sports events or watching  

Them on TV and playing sport in their free time. Some of the most popular world sports – football,   rugby, cricket, golf and tennis  – first started in England,  and people from all around the world come  here for some of its great sports events.

In 2012, the Olympics were held in England,  and millions of people from around the world   came to London to watch the many different  sports of the Olympics and the Paralympics.  New sports stadiums were built,  including the main Olympic stadium,  

A basketball arena and a velopark, for cycling. It was the first time the Olympics had come to   England since 1948 and was a very  exciting year for the country. The most popular sport in England is  football, and there are professional  

Matches every week from August until May. Many thousands of people also play in parks,   at local clubs, and at schools or universities. Football has been played in England for hundreds   of years, and the best football teams, for example Manchester United, Liverpool,  

Chelsea and Arsenal, are famous around the world. The most important day in England’s football   calendar is the Football Association (FA) Cup  Final day in May at London’s Wembley Stadium. Many people believe that England’s best  ever footballer was Bobby Charlton, 

Who started playing for Manchester United in 1953  and scored 249 goals over the next twenty years.  In 1958, Charlton was in an aeroplane with  the Manchester United team when it crashed,   killing eight players. Bobby Charlton was not  

Killed in the crash, and he went on to play  in the 1966 World Cup, which England won.  It was the first and only time  that England has won the World Cup. Cricket was first played in England in the  sixteenth century, and by the eighteenth century,  

It had become the country’s national sport. Every summer, teams from other countries play   five-day Test matches against  the English national team.  Cricket is also played on village greens  – small fields in villages – around   the country in the summer months. Because cricket matches are so long,  

A new kind of match called the  Twenty20 was introduced in 2003.  Twenty20 matches are only three hours  long, so people can watch them in one day. Rugby is another sport that began in England,   and it is named after the school where it was  first played Rugby School in Warwickshire. 

Rugby is like football, but players can hold  the ball and tackle each other pull each   other to the ground – to get the ball. Rugby is not as popular as football,   but after England won the World Cup in 2003,  more people began to watch and play the sport. 

In England, there are two kinds of rugby, each  very different: Rugby League and Rugby Union. For two weeks around the end of  June, England becomes tennis-mad! This is the time of the Wimbledon Championships,  the most famous tennis tournament in the world.  Few people watch tennis on  TV for the rest of the year,  

But during Wimbledon, matches are shown  on TV every afternoon and evening. England’s most famous tennis  player was Fred Perry,   who won the Wimbledon Championship every  year for three years, from 1934 to 1936.  Since that time, no English player  has won the Men’s Championship. Horse-racing is another very  popular sport in England. 

There are races every day of the year, and  people enjoy making bets on which horse will win.  The Derby at Epsom, which continues to be  held today, was the first derby ever, and   derbies – races on flat ground for three-year-old  horses – are now held around the world. 

Other important dates in horseracing are the Grand  National in Liverpool in April – one of the most   difficult horse races in the world – and Royal Ascot, five days of horse   racing in Berkshire in June. The Queen always goes to Ascot,  

So it is an important event in England, and  visitors wear their best clothes and hats. Another important day for sport in  England is the London Marathon in April.  More than thirty thousand people run in the  London Marathon, which has been held since 1981. 

The fastest people finish the forty-two  kilometer run in just over two hours,   but for many runners the most important  thing is making money for charity. Watersports are popular in  England, and many people,   especially on the south coast, enjoy sailing. There are good waves for surfing at many  

Of the beaches in the south-west, and  canoeing is also popular on England’s   many rivers and canals. Two of England’s most   famous sportspeople do a watersport – Steve Redgrave, who won gold medals for rowing   at every Olympic Games between 1984 and 2000, and Ellen MacArthur, who broke the world record  

For sailing around the world alone in  the fastest time on 7th February 2005. Golf is also a very popular sport for English  people. There are many golf courses in England,  and every July the Open Championship,   one of the four biggest tournaments in  the world, is held in England or Scotland.

Motor-racing is also well-liked, and  many people go to a course called   Silverstone in Northamptonshire every  year to watch the British Grand Prix. At school, children play football, rugby, netball  and cricket, and do athletics in the summer.  There are public swimming pools and  gyms in most towns, and many people  

Also enjoy cycling and walking. Other outdoor activities like   mountaineering – climbing and walking in the hills  and mountains – are also very popular in England. English people love sport. For some  time, they have not won many big   events in the sports that first came  from their country many years before. 

But sport continues to be a very  important part of life in England. Chapter 8: Entertainment England is famous around the world for  its great culture and entertainment.  Some of the worlds greatest writers,   best films, and most famous actors  and directors have come from England, 

And there are several hundred theatres and concert  halls showing wonderful plays, music and dance. Literature is a very important part  of England’s history, and all around   the country you can visit the homes of  some of the many great English writers. 

The most famous of these is, of course,  William Shakespeare, but many others have   written great works of literature too. In the late seventeenth century,   there were some fine poets, for example  John Milton, who wrote Paradise Lost.  Novels only began to be widely  written in the eighteenth century, 

And one of the earliest of these was Daniel  Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719,   which continues to be very popular today. The first half of the nineteenth century was  famous for the Romantic poetry of writers like   Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats. Jane Austen was another great writer of this time. 

In books like Emma, Pride  and Prejudice and Persuasion,   Austen wrote about how women saw  society, marriage and happiness. Famous Victorian writers included Charles  Dickens, the Bronte sisters and George Eliot.  In Victorian times, people began for the first  time to write literature just for children, 

And one of the best-known of these new  children’s books was Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s   Adventures in Wonderland, which continues  to be read by many children even today. Another writer from around this  time whose work is much-loved now   is Arthur Conan Doyle, who was Scottish. He wrote stories about Sherlock Holmes,  

A London detective, between 1880 and 1907. Sherlock Holmes had a brilliant mind and was able   to find the answers to the strangest mysteries. The stories of these mysteries were told to the   reader by Sherlock Holmes’s  great friend Dr Watson. An important English writer at the beginning  of the twentieth century was Thomas Hardy. 

Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Far From  the Madding Crowd and Hardy’s other   novels were often terribly sad stories about  people in an imaginary county called Wessex.  Rudyard Kipling was also popular at  this time and from 1910, a new kind   of ‘modernist’ literature became important. One of the first modernist writers was Joseph  

Conrad, who was Polish, but lived in England, and between the two wars there was a lot   of other new literature, from writers like  Virginia Woolf, Evelyn Waugh and DH Lawrence. After the Second World War, two of England’s  most important writers were George Orwell,   who wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, 

And Agatha Christie, who wrote sixty-six  detective novels, including the adventures   of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. Modern fantasy literature – writing   about magic, monsters and other imaginary  things – became popular at this time too,  when The Lord of the Rings, by JRR  Tolkien, was published in 1949.

Two of the most famous writers of the last  fifty years are children’s writers. Roald Dahl,   who was born in Wales to Norwegian parents,  wrote books such as Charlie and the Chocolate  Factory and Matilda, many of which also   became great films and theatre shows. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series – a  

Group of seven fantasy books for children  – has sold hundreds of millions of copies,  and people can now read them in  sixty-seven different languages. Many of these works of literature have  become famous plays, and for many people   an important part of any visit to  England is a trip to the theatre. 

There are several hundred theatres in England,  around the country, but the most famous are   the theatres of the West End in London. In the West End, there is a theatre on   nearly every street, showing the latest plays  and musicals, and many of the best actors from  

All around the world come to perform here. Some of the most famous shows in the West   End have been musicals, such as Cats and  Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber,  but in London and around the country, you  can also see many different kinds of shows,  

Including more serious  plays, new works and comedy. One of the oldest theatres  in London is the Old Vic,   which first began to show plays in 1818. England also has the National Theatre,   on London’s South Bank near the  London Eye, which opened in 1976. 

Across the Thames are the Royal Ballet and  the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden,   and the English National Opera at the  Coliseum, the largest theatre in London. Outside London, England’s most famous theatre  is the theatre of the Royal Shakespeare Company   in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare’s  

Plays are performed throughout the year. In the summer, you can also see Shakespeare’s   plays at the Globe Theatre in London, a round theatre with no roof, like   the one where these famous plays were first  performed more than four hundred years ago.

England is important for its music too. George Frideric Handel, Edward Elgar and   Gustav Holst are three of the country’s  most famous classical music composers,  and at places like the Royal Festival  Hall and the Barbican Centre in London,  you can hear many different kinds  of classical music, played by some  

Of the finest orchestras in the world. There is also a lot of good classical music   outside London: the Birmingham Symphony  Orchestra is one of the best in Europe,  and at many stately homes and castles around the  country there are outdoor concerts in the summer.

But it is for its pop music  that England is best known.  Together with the USA, the UK brought  rock ‘n’ roll to the world in the 1950s,  and The Beatles, who became popular in the 1960s,  is one of the most famous bands in the world. 

During the 1960s, the Rolling Stones,  Cliff Richard and The Shadows, The Who,   The Kinks, The Animals and many other  bands became important in England,  and they started to become famous  in the USA too. For a while,   the USA began to follow the  UK in music and in fashion.

In the 1970s, music changed. First there was glam rock from artists like David   Bowie and Elton John, who coloured their hair,  and wore strange and wonderful clothes and shoes.  Then came punk rock – short, fast  songs, often with a political  

Message, sung by bands like the Clash. In the 1980s, world music, heavy metal (loud,   hard music) and indie rock were popular, and  England’s dance music culture also began.  But in the late 1990s, some artists  turned against the many fashions  

In music of the ’80s and early ’90s, and Britpop arrived – bands such as Blur,   Oasis and Radiohead that followed the  British guitar music of the 1960s and ’70s.  Several of these bands became  famous around Europe and in the USA.

Today, you can see bands play in clubs in  almost every big city, and there are also   music festivals around the country where  people camp and watch music in big fields.  The most famous of these is at Glastonbury.  Art-lovers can find a lot to enjoy in England too. 

Two of England’s most famous artists were the  landscape painters John Constable and JMW Turner,  and many of their pictures can be seen  at the Tate Britain gallery in London.  London also has the Tate Modern, of course,   and there are also great exhibitions  at the Royal Academy of Arts, 

And a lot of Western European art at the  National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.  In the 1990s, a group of artists  called the Young British Artists   (YBAs) became very popular in England. One of the most famous YBAs was Damien Hirst,  

Who made a lot of art works with dead animals. Some people love his work, and others hate it! Most towns in England have a cinema,  and watching films is a very popular   activity for English people. England has made some of the  

World’s greatest films, and some of the most  famous actors and directors are English. The film industry only really  started in England in the 1930s,   when some famous films like  The 39 Steps were made.  But it was in the 1950s and 1960s that  British cinema became really important. 

At this time, Hammer Horror films like  The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula   were made – and Ealing Comedies like Kind  Hearts and Coronets and Whisky Galore.  The first Carry On film was made in  1958, and by 1992, there were thirty-one.  The Carry On films were comedies  that made jokes about English life. 

They were not thought of as important films,  but were loved by many English people. The James Bond films were another series  that became very famous in England.  The stories were adventures about James Bond,   a secret service agent – someone who  worked secretly for the government,  

Looking for enemies of the country. The first Bond film, Dr No, was made in 1962,   and the films became famous for their  music, Bond’s cars and clever equipment,  and for James Bond himself – a character  played by several different actors.

A famous English actor of the 1960s was Julie  Andrews, who appeared in two famous musical   films, The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. But many people believe that the greatest actor   of the twentieth century was Laurence Olivier. Olivier, who worked in theatre and film from  

The 1920s until the 1980s, made nearly sixty  films, including Rebecca and Wuthering Heights. Also very famous, but as a director  not an actor, was Alfred Hitchcock.  He made many great mystery films in England  and in Hollywood, where he later went to live.

From the 1990s, romantic comedies like Four  Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill were made,   and the Merchant Ivory films of  classic novels like Howard’s End.  Since then, some of England’s most  successful films have been Love Actually,   Slumdog Millionaire and the Harry Potter series. But England’s most popular kind  of entertainment is television. 

Public television first began in  England in 1936, and the British   Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) is the  world’s oldest and largest broadcaster.  Today there are five main channels in  England, and there are also hundreds   more channels on cable and satellite TV. There are hundreds of radio stations too.

On English TV, there are many  different kinds of programmers,   but some of the most popular ones are sitcoms (situation comedies) – comedies about people   in their home or where they work. One of the most famous of these was   Fawlty Towers, with the actor John Cleese. Many people also enjoy soap operas – dramas  

Which continue from one programme  to the next, for example Eastenders,   Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks. Another very popular drama series in   England in the 1990s was Inspector  Morse, about a detective in Oxford. Many people also enjoy reality programmes  – programmes about ordinary people’s lives. 

One of the most famous of these is Big Brother, a  programme in which a group of people live together   in a house and are filmed twenty-four hours a day. Some of the Big Brother programmes have been   watched by up to six million people in the UK: England has great music, art, history and  

Literature, but sometimes people are  most interested in day-to-day life! Chapter 9: English Heroes Who are England’s heroes – the important  people who will never be forgotten?  One of the greatest must be William Shakespeare,   who wrote many beautiful poems  and about thirty-seven plays,  including A Midsummer Night’s Dream,  Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth. 

The people in his plays always seem very  real, and he wrote about their feelings   and problems in words that continue  to sound new and interesting today. Another hero of England from the world  of literature is Charles Dickens.  Dickens wrote some of the best novels of  Victorian times, including Oliver Twist,  

David Copperfield, Bleak House and Little Dorrit. Dickens used his books to show how terrible   life was for poor people in England at  the time of the industrial revolution. But England has scientific heroes as well  as heroes from the world of literature. 

One of the greatest of these was Sir Isaac  Newton. Born in Lincolnshire in 1643,   Newton studied at the University of Cambridge. He was able to understand and explain many things   about the world around us for the first time, and his book Mathematical Principles of Natural  

Philosophy was very important  in the history of science.  Newton helped people to understand about  light and colour, and he was also the first   person to explain gravity – the force  that pulls things towards the ground. Charles Darwin also did  scientific work in England. 

He was born into a rich family, and in 1831  he left England to travel around the world.  Darwin studied the animals and plants  that he saw on his trip, and was   interested in the differences between them. When he came home, he began to work on a new  

Idea: the theory of evolution. This was the idea that only the   strongest animals and plants lived and  reproduced – had babies or grew seeds.  And so, Darwin believed, each kind of  animal and plant was slowly changing.  In 1859, Darwin published his ideas  in the book On the Origin of Species.

One very real hero of England  was Horatio Nelson, who was   leader of the Royal Navy from 1794 to 1805. Nelson, who lost one eye and one arm in battle,   was a great leader, and with him, Britain won many  battles against France during the Napoleonic Wars. 

At the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson helped  to stop the French from invading Britain,   but he was then killed. A very large statue of him stands   forty-six meters high in Trafalgar Square  and is one of London’s best-loved sights. Two other important English seamen were  Sir Francis Drake and Captain Cook. 

Sir Francis Drake helped to lead England  against the Spanish Armada in 1588,   and Captain Cook was the first European to  reach the east coast of Australia, in 1770. Winston Churchill, prime minister from  1940 until 1945, was another English  

Hero for many people during World War Two. Churchill was a strong leader, and many people   believe that the speeches and radio broadcasts he  made during the war helped the UK to win the war.  He was prime minister again from 1951 to  1955, and when he died in 1965, the Queen  

Gave him a state funeral – a special funeral  that is normally only for kings and queens. Another famous politician was Margaret Thatcher.  Thatcher was prime minister from 1979 to  1990 – longer than any other person in   the twentieth century – and she was also  the first woman prime minister of the UK.

One of England’s most famous  heroes is not actually real.  Stories about Robin Hood have been  popular since the Middle Ages,   and in modern times many films, plays and  TV programmes have been made about him.  In these old stories, Robin  Hood is a great fighter and an  

Outlaw – someone who does not follow the law. Living in Sherwood Forest at a time when the   king of England is a dishonest man, he takes  money from the rich to give it to the poor. Florence Nightingale was famous for helping  people too – but she was a real person. 

Florence Nightingale is thought of  by many as the first real nurse.  In 1854, during the Crimean War, she  went to work in a hospital for soldiers.  She thought that it was dirty and badly organized,  so she quickly started to make important changes. 

Because of her, the hospital became cleaner, the  soldiers were given good food and taken care of   better, and soon fewer people were dying. When she came back to England, Florence   Nightingale started the first proper  nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital.

England also has heroes of the stage and screen. One of the first of these was Charlie Chaplin,   a comedy actor and director who was  famous for his many silent films in   the years before films with sound were made. Chaplin’s best-known character was ‘The Tramp’,  

A funny little man with a  hat, a moustache and a stick.  Before the end of the First World War, Chaplin  was the most famous film actor in the world. But probably the greatest stage  heroes of England are The Beatles. 

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison  and Ringo Starr had their first hit, Love Me Do,   in 1962, and by 1964, they had  become famous around the world.  There was international ‘Beatlemania: people  screamed and shouted when the band came on stage,   and the world watched everything they did. 

The Beatles were the first English  band to become successful in the USA.  They made more than two hundred songs  and are the best-selling band in history. Two more musical heroes of England, famous  in a quieter way, are the composers George   Frideric Handel and Sir Edward Elgar. Handel was German, but came to live  

In London in 1712 and became British in 1727. He is one of the greatest composers in history   and is best known for wonderful works like  Water Music and The Messiah, written in 1742.  Elgar’s most famous works are the  Enigma Variations, written in 1899,   The Dream of Gerontius and the  Pomp and Circumstance Marches.

What about modern-day English heroes? For  many football lovers, David Beckham is a hero.  He was captain of the England football team from  2000 until 2006 and, along with his wife Victoria,   who was once in the band the Spice Girls,  Beckham is a very famous celebrity.

Princess Diana is also, for  many people, an English hero.  Diana was the first wife of Charles, the Prince  of Wales, and when they married in 1981, people   believed that she would one day be the queen. But they were not happy together, and in 1996  

Charles and Diana ended their marriage. A year later, Diana was killed in a   car accident in Paris. Many people loved her   for her work with international charities and  because she showed great kindness to children,   ill people and those with difficult lives. When she died, thousands of people brought  

Flowers to her London home, and two-and-a-half  billion people watched her funeral on TV. Chapter 10: Looking Forward All through England’s history, small inventions  – new things that people make – have brought   big changes to peoples lives. When William Caxton made the   first English printing press in 1476,  the country changed in many ways. 

Now people could get more books,  more cheaply, and so they could get   information about lots of different things. Because of this, information also became more   standardized: it was written down in the  same way each time, which was important   in areas like science. The printing press  

Changed the English language too. At that time, people in different parts of   the country used very different words, but William  Caxton only printed books in standardized English. The spinning Jenny, invented  in 1764 by James Hargreaves,   brought more important changes to England. With the spinning Jenny, people working in  

Their homes in England could spin cotton  more quickly and so make much more.  Other machines followed, and when steam power was  introduced, cloth making became a proper industry.  Cloth-makers did not work at home anymore; they  used big machines in factories in the cities.

This was the beginning of the industrial  revolution, and in twenty- first century England,  people are in the middle of another revolution,   or great change, again started  by several small inventions. One of the most important of these was the  invention by the Englishman Tim Berners-Lee,  

In 1990, of the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web has made it   easier than ever for people to get information. Its invention is part of the digital revolution,   which has given us mobile phones, computers,  MP3 players, digital TV and much, much more.

The digital revolution is changing many  things about life in England. We can now   talk on the telephone almost anywhere, send messages quickly around the world   and see people who are thousands of  kilometers away through our computers.  Because of this, people can study  or work from home more easily,  

And work with people in different countries. We can shop and meet people on the Internet,   read books on our computers and watch  hundreds of different TV channels.  And the machines we use every day, like  radios, washing machines and cameras,   are becoming better and cheaper all the time.

But the digital revolution is  also bringing new problems.  Many people feel that modern technology makes  life busier and sometimes more difficult.  We can work wherever we are now, so for some  people there is less time to think or to relax. 

Is it good for children to play  computer games and watch TV so much?  And are we forgetting how to meet people and   make real friends because we talk to  people through computers so much now? These are all difficult questions for  England’s future, and there are other  

Questions we are trying to answer now too. For a long time, we have known that there are   big environmental problems in the world. Factories, cars, and burning coal,   oil or gas for fuel all make our  air dirty, giving us global warming.  So now we need to find ways  to help the environment.

Many English homes and companies are  already getting their electricity   from solar (sun) or wind power, and the government is giving money   to people who use these renewable energies  – ones that can be used again and again.  In the future, we will probably use  less and less coal, oil and gas. 

Many English people have been recycling more  and more of their rubbish, and by 2011, they   were recycling forty percent of their rubbish. In the future, many people also believe that   we will use electric cars more and  other energy-saving technologies. The digital and environmental  revolutions are changing England. 

England in 2100 will be a very different  place to the England we now know.  Will England have a king or queen? Will there continue to be big   differences between rich and poor people? How many different languages will people speak?  And will England have won  the Football World Cup again?  We cannot know. 

But we can probably hope that people will  continue to watch Shakespeare’s plays,   climb the mountains of the Lake  District and visit the sights of London.  And perhaps they will still say that  England is a wonderful, exciting place. Chapter 1: A special country There is nowhere like Scotland.

Scotland is a country in a country. It is part of Great Britain (England,   Scotland, and Wales), and of the United Kingdom  (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). Scotland is in the far north-west of Europe,  between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. 

It is often cold and grey, and it rains  a lot in some parts of the country.  But the people of Scotland love their country,  and many visitors to Scotland love it too.  They love the beautiful hills and mountains  of the north, the sea and the 800 islands,  

And the six cities – Edinburgh, Glasgow,  Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness, and Stirling.  The country is special and Scottish people  are special too: often warm and friendly. There are about five million people in Scotland.  Most Scots live in the south, in or near  the big cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. 

Most of the north of the country is  very empty; not many people live there. A Scottish person is also called a Scot,  but you cannot talk about a Scotch person:   Scotch means whisky, a drink made in Scotland.  Scottish people are British, because  Scotland is part of Great Britain,  

But you must not call Scottish people English! The Scots and the English are different. These days everyone in Scotland  speaks English, but at one time,   people in the north and west of  Scotland did not speak English.  They had a different language, a  beautiful language called Gaelic. 

About 60,000 people – 1 percent of the  people in Scotland – speak Gaelic now.  But many more want Gaelic in their lives  because it is part of the story of Scotland. Scotland is not a very hot country.  In the summer, the days are  long and it can be warm. 

But in the winter the days can be just  seven hours long, and it often rains. For many years, Scotland was a poor country,  but now things are better for most people.  There is oil and gas in the sea  between Scotland and Norway.  Edinburgh is an important place  for money, and there are big  

Banks there like the Royal Bank of Scotland. People in many countries drink Scotch whisky,   and the whisky business makes  a lot of money for Scotland.  Tourists visit this beautiful country  and that brings money to Scotland too.  Many people love living and working there,  

And more than 20 million visitors  go to Scotland each year. Chapter 2: Scotland’s past Scotland is the oldest country in the world. Why? Because the hills of the north-west and the   Hebridean islands are more  than 2,700 million years old.  You can walk on some of the  oldest rocks in the world there.

People first lived there 9,000 years ago. At Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands, in the   far north of Scotland, you can see the houses of  early people from about five thousand years ago.  The houses at Knap of Howar, also on  the Orkneys, are the oldest in Europe.

The Romans went to Scotland, but  they did not stay there for long.  Between AD 122 and 128 they built Hadrian’s Wall. It was 117 kilometres long, and went from sea to   sea across the most northern part of England. The Romans stayed in England for nearly  

Three hundred years until about AD 400,  and then they left and went back to Rome.  Today you can visit Hadrian’s Wall in the  north of England and walk along parts of it. Who were the first Scots? The people north of Hadrian’s  

Wall were called Piets by the Romans. We can still see some of their story   in their pictures in stone. But there were also Scotti   from Ireland (the name ‘Scotland’ comes  from the Scotti), Vikings from Norway,   and some English people from the south. These different peoples came  

Under one king in the 800s. The first king of all the Scots,   many people say, was Kenneth MacAlpin. He was king from 843 to 858.  But the most famous Scottish king of  this early time is Macbeth (1040-1057). 

He is famous because Shakespeare wrote about him. For Shakespeare, Macbeth was a very bad man – but   he was not worse than many  other kings of those early days. There were many battles  between England and Scotland.  One important Scot was William  Wallace (about 1270-1305). 

You can learn about him in the film Brave heart. Then in 1314, the Scottish King Robert the Bruce   took his men to the Battle of Bannockburn. After the battle, 10,000 Englishmen were dead,   and Robert became one of the most  important kings in the story of Scotland. 

Soon after, Scotland was free and stayed  free for nearly three hundred years. In 1542, a little girl called Mary became queen  of Scotland: she was six days old, and only the   second woman to be queen of this country. Mary Queen of Scots became a tall and  

Beautiful woman, but some Scots  did not want her to be queen.  Mary went to England and asked Elizabeth, the  English queen, for help, but she did not get it.  She never returned to Scotland, and  died in England after nineteen years. 

Mary’s son James Stuart became king of Scotland  and then King James the First of England too.  In 1707, the two countries became Great Britain. In the 1700s, Scotland was more  like two countries than one:  there were rich cities in the south,  but there were poor country people  

In the Highlands (the hill country in  the centre and the north of Scotland).  At that time, Edinburgh was one of  the most important cities in Europe   and many famous thinkers lived there. Then in the 1800s, Glasgow became rich;   people built big ships there, and later trains. 

So the south of Scotland had busy cities with  beautiful buildings, lots of work, and money. In the Highlands, things were very different. After 1714, Great Britain had German kings,   from Hanover in north Germany. Many Scots in the Highlands wanted  

A Scottish king – someone from the Stuart family  like Mary and James, not a German king in London.  They wanted Charles Stuart – ‘Bonnie Prince  Charlie’ – the grandson of the last Stuart king,   James the Second of England  and the Seventh of Scotland. 

Charles Stuart left France and came to Scotland:  he wanted to be King of Scotland and England too.  But Charles and his men lost the Battle  of Culloden, near Inverness, in 1746.  Culloden was the last big battle in Great Britain.

After the battle, the British soldiers looked  for Charles, but he went into the hills.  The people of the Highlands and the  islands helped him to go back to France,   but life became difficult for them after that. The British soldiers stayed in the Highlands,  

And took away houses and land from  the friends of Charles Stuart.  After this many poor families left the Highlands  and went to the cities in the south of Scotland,   or to other countries – the USA,  Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.  Some went because they wanted to begin a new life,  

But others went because the rich owners of the  land in Scotland wanted to put animals there.  Between 1840 and 1880, 40,000 people left  just one island – the island of Skye. Life became more difficult in the 1900s,  

But oil and gas in the North Sea began to  bring money to Scotland again in the 1970s.  Let’s look now at some of the famous  places in the Scotland of today. Chapter 3: Edinburgh Many people begin a visit to Scotland  in Edinburgh, the capital city. 

Edinburgh is an old city with many  important and interesting buildings,   and about 470,000 people live there.  After London, Edinburgh is the  second city for visitors in Britain. Come to Edinburgh by train from the  south, and you arrive at Waverley Station. 

When you come out of the station, Edinburgh  Castle is in front of you, high up on a hill.  From the castle, you can see all over the city. You can see the famous One O’clock Gun – and  

At 1 o’clock, from Monday to Saturday, you  can hear it too. It makes a very big noise! Edinburgh is built on hills, but  you can walk around the city easily.  From the castle, you can go down  the Royal Mile to Holyroodhouse.  This building, three hundred years  old, is the home of Queen Elizabeth  

The Second when she comes to Edinburgh. This part of the city is called ‘the Old Town’. Then take a walk along Princes  Street in ‘the New Town’.  The New Town (1767-1840) is more than 150  years old now but still has this name.  Some shops have the famous Scottish tartans. 

Each clan – a big, old Scottish family  is called a clan – has its own tartan,   and in the windows you can see the  different tartans for famous Scottish clans.  People with a Scottish family name  can buy and wear the family tartan.  Edinburgh has many wonderful things.  The buildings in the New Town – in Charlotte  Square, for example – are very beautiful.  There are very good museums: the National Museum  of Scotland is near the Royal Mile, and tells you  

A lot about the Scotland of yesterday and today. The National Gallery of Scotland, near the castle,   has beautiful pictures from Scotland  and from many other countries too. In August, thousands of people  come to the Edinburgh Festival.  Singing, dancing, cinema, books, pictures,  theatre – you can see and do hundreds  

Of different things at the festival. And also in August, every evening for   three weeks, you can go to the Edinburgh  Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle.  There you can see soldiers and hear music from  Scotland and from lots of other countries.

On 31 December, everyone wants to be in  the city centre for the famous street   party for Hogmanay – that is the  Scottish name for New Year’s Eve.  But there are only 100,000  tickets, and they go very quickly! 

The party begins in one year and finishes  in the next – that is a good time! Chapter 4: Glasgow Glasgow is Scotland’s biggest  city and the third biggest in   the United Kingdom after London and Birmingham.  About 630,000 people live in the city  and about 1.2 million in and near it. 

It is not very far from Edinburgh – about fifty  minutes by train – but it is very different. The River Clyde runs through  the centre of Glasgow, and it   has an important part in the story of Glasgow. Two hundred years ago, Glasgow was a small town. 

Then, British ships began  to go all over the world.  Big ships came up and down the River Clyde. They carried things from other countries.  In the 1800s, Britain was the  richest country in the world.  Shipbuilding became very important and  Glasgow became a city of shipbuilders. 

At one time, it was the fourth largest city  in Europe after London, Paris, and Berlin.  You can see some of the beautiful  buildings from that time in George Square.  Today there is not much shipbuilding;  some parts of Glasgow are very poor   and many people have no work. But things are changing in Glasgow.  

Ask a Glaswegian (a person from Glasgow). To them, Glasgow is the friendliest city   in Britain, and one of the most  exciting cities in Britain too. There are lots of things  to do at night in Glasgow.  It is perhaps the best city in  Britain after London for shopping too. 

Like Edinburgh, it is a green city.  It has seventy parks, and you can often  see the hills from the centre of the city. It is a city of museums. You can see many beautiful pictures in the Glasgow  

City Museum and Art Gallery, and in the Burrell  Collection and Pollok House, south of the Clyde. It is the city of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. About a hundred years ago Mackintosh and three   friends began a new look in building: art nouveau. Much of Mackintosh’s best work is in Glasgow. 

His Glasgow School of Art is on Renfrew Street. After you visit it, you can have a coffee   at the Willow Tea Rooms, also by  Mackintosh, on Sauchiehall Street. And Glasgow is, of course, a big football city. You can watch Glasgow Celtic at Celtic Park,  

Or Glasgow Rangers at the Ibrox Stadium,  on Saturdays between August and May. Chapter 5: Four Scottish cities Aberdeen, with 192,000 people, is  the third biggest city in Scotland.  It is in the east of the country,   on the North Sea, and it is between  two rivers – the Dee and the Don. 

Fishing and shipbuilding were once important here,  but now it is famous as the oil capital of the UK.  Boats and planes leave Aberdeen every day  for the oil and gas fields of the North Sea.  It has two universities and many  wonderful parks and gardens. 

The musicians Annie Lennox and Evelyn  Glennie both come from Aberdeen. Visitors to Aberdeen often go to its beautiful  long beach, or go climbing south of the city.  Aberdeen is close to the cold  and beautiful mountains called   the Cairngorms, and there are more than  350 castles in this part of the country. 

One of them is Balmoral, the queen’s castle. Queen Elizabeth comes here every summer. Dundee, on the River Tay,  is near the North Sea too.  Like Glasgow and Aberdeen, it was  once important for shipbuilding.  The ship Discovery was built here, and  left Dundee in 1901 for Antarctica. 

Now, more than a hundred years later, the ship is  back in Dundee again, and you can visit it there.  Dundee is also famous for… marmalade! The Keiller family began making orange   marmalade here in 1797, and it  became famous all over the world. Inverness is the only city in the Highlands. 

The best bagpipers in the world  come here to play every September.  It is close to the beautiful lake called Loch  Ness (loch is the Gaelic word for ‘lake’).  A very big animal called the Loch Ness  Monster, or Nessie, lives in Loch Ness. 

An old story says this, and thousands of  tourists go there every year to look for it.  But Nessie does not come. Perhaps  this is just a story for tourists. Then there is Stirling, to  the northeast of Glasgow.  Many visitors go through Stirling  when they go to the Highlands. 

It has a wonderful castle, one of the biggest  and most important castles in Scotland.  The battle of Bannockburn in 1314 was near here,   and here Mary became queen of Scotland  when she was only six days old. Chapter 6: Highlands and islands Highlands. The Highlands, in the north and west  

Of Scotland, are a special part of the world. There are not a lot of people here – only   eight people per square kilometre  – but there is a lot of beautiful   country, with lochs, rivers, and hills. The Highlands have two of the most wonderful train  

Journeys in the world: from Inverness to Kyle  of Lochalsh, and from Fort William to Mallaig.  Or visitors can go by road past the beautiful  Loch Lomond to the mountains at Glen Coe. Do you love to be out of the cities,  walking, climbing, looking for birds  

And animals, or taking photos? Then the Highlands are for you.  The mountains are not very high –  Ben Nevis, the highest in the UK,   is 1,344 metres – but they can be difficult. Sometimes cold weather comes from the north,  

So walkers and climbers need to be careful  in the winter and in the summer too. What can you see in the Highlands? There are not many trees on the hills,   but there is beautiful heather. The water in the lochs is cold and dark. 

Red deer run across the hills, and perhaps  you can see golden eagles high up in the sky.  When you leave the road, you  are soon in empty country;   there is nothing but the hills and  the sky, the birds and the animals. Islands. Scotland has hundreds of islands,  

And life is different there. The island towns are small.  On some islands, like Skye and the islands of  the Hebrides, many of the people speak Gaelic.  On the islands of Lewis and Harris, some people  do not work, drive, or watch TV on Sundays. 

In the north, the islands of Orkney and  Shetland are nearer to Norway than to London. From Oban in the west of Scotland, you can go  to some of the islands in the Inner Hebrides.  Here you can see sea animals like seals. From Mull, you can go to see the beautiful  

Caves of Staffa, or you can visit Iona. Saint Columba came to the small island of   Iona from Ireland in 563, and began  to teach people about Christianity.  Today Iona is an important Christian centre  and half a million people go there every year. 

The bodies of Kenneth MacAlpin and  other Scottish kings are here on Iona.  You can also go to Skye, perhaps the  most famous and the most beautiful of   the islands of Scotland, and see the dark  mountains called the Cuillin near the sea. From Ullapool, you can go across  to Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. 

There are long, white, empty beaches here and  the 5,000-year-old stone circle at Callanish.  There are fifty standing stones at Callanish.  Time goes more slowly in  this quiet, special place. Chapter 7: Sport and free time Many Scottish people love sport,  and in Scotland, many people play  

Golf – the rich and the not so rich. Golf began in this country, and the   golf capital of Scotland is St Andrews,  a small university city near Edinburgh.  There are more than four hundred golf courses in  Scotland, and many of them are very beautiful. 

In the summer, when the days are long, you can  play from seven in the morning to ten at night. Football is also very important: in 2006,   Scotland had the tenth highest number of  football clubs of any country in the world. 

Celtic and Rangers are the biggest and the most  famous Scottish clubs but others like Aberdeen   also do well in Scotland and in Europe. The Scots play rugby football too,   and it is an important sport in Scotland. In 1990 Scotland beat England, Wales,  

Ireland, and France at rugby – and every  year the Scots want to do this again!  But now Italy plays too, so they need  to beat five countries, not four. Scotland’s hills and mountains are good for  sports too – walking, climbing, cycling, and more. 

And there are lots of exciting sports on,  in, and under the water, in the lochs,   rivers, and the sea. You can take a kayak   down a fast river, for example, or out to sea. The rain does not matter when you do these sports!

Between May and September, in more than  a hundred different places in Scotland,   people meet at a Highland Games – a  festival of Scottish sports and music.  You can see big men tossing the caber,   listen to Scottish music on the  bagpipes, and watch Scottish dancing.

Not all Scots men have kilts, but more and  more of them wear one sometimes, and lots of   people wear kilts to the Games. When a Scotsman wears a kilt,   he is saying, ‘I like being Scottish.’ A kilt needs about six metres of tartan. 

When one of the big clans – like Clan Donald,  Mackenzie, or Stewart – has a big meeting,   people come from many countries. Many of them wear kilts in the   clan tartan when they come. One clan in the USA – Clan   Donald – has 4,000 families. Their families went from Scotland  

To the USA perhaps 150 years ago,  but they still want to be Scottish. Chapter 8: Five great Scots Scotland is not a big country and does  not have many people, but there are many   famous and important Scots. Here are five of them. Robert Adam (1728-1792) made  some of the best buildings in  

Great Britain in the second half of the 1700s. He went to school and university in Edinburgh,   and then to Rome for five years to  learn about the buildings there.  Then he came back to Britain.  He worked on the New Town in Edinburgh and you  can see buildings by him in Charlotte Square. 

There are many beautiful buildings  by Adam in England and Scotland.  People come from all over Europe  and America to look at them. David Hume (1711-1776) was  a great thinker and writer.  People still read and talk about his  books today because they are so important. 

He also wrote a very long History of England – at  that time, the most important book of this kind.  Hume went to the University of  Edinburgh when he was twelve years old.  Later he went to France and made friends with  famous French thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau. 

His most important book is A  Treatise of Human Nature (1739-1740). The next great Scot is Robert Burns (1759-1796);  the Scots call him Robbie or Rabbie Burns.  He was born into a poor country  family, the oldest of seven   children, near Ayr in south-west Scotland. He began writing poems when he was still a boy. 

He wrote about important things – about life and  love, rich people and poor people, and Scotland.  His words still speak to us today  and many Scots love his poems. Burns was born on 25 January, and that  night is called Burns Night by the Scots. 

On Burns Night there are special  dinners not just in Scotland but   for Scottish people in other countries too. They eat haggis (a special Scottish food),   drink whisky, and say poems by Burns. And at midnight on 31 December in many  

English – speaking countries, people sing the  words of Burns when they sing ‘Auld Lang Syne’  (the name of the song means  something like ‘long long ago’). James Watt (1736-1819) was born in Greenock  near Glasgow and did not often go to school  

When he was a child: he stayed at  home and his mother was his teacher.  Watt was a quick thinker and he  liked to build things with his hands.  He got work-building things for the  teachers at the University of Glasgow. 

There he became interested in steam engines. He began a business with his friend Matthew   Boulton, and from 1794 to 1824,  they made 1,164 steam engines.  These engines changed Great Britain and the world. After Watt, the world was a different place. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)  was born in Edinburgh, went to the  

University of Edinburgh, and became a doctor. But he did not make much money as a doctor so   he began to write stories about a  detective called Sherlock Holmes.  Soon Sherlock Holmes was famous and  Conan Doyle became rich and famous too.  He wrote many stories about  Holmes and his friend Dr Watson,  

And also wrote stories about a  man called Professor Challenger. Chapter 9: Food and drink Food. In the earliest day’s Scottish people took   their food from the sea, the rivers, and the land. From the sea and the rivers came fish, and from  

The land they got fruit, vegetables, and meat. And they got oats from the land too.  They made their bread from oats, and they made  porridge from oats and water for a hot breakfast. People still eat all of these things in  Scotland today, but they eat new things too. 

From 1900 on, many people began to come to  Scotland from countries like Italy and India,   and they brought different food with them. There is a lot of good food in Scotland. It is famous for its fish, like salmon  

And haddock, and for other food from the sea. Fish farming is very important for Scotland;   it gives work to about 6,000 people, and  brings lots of money into the country.  Then there is Scottish beef – the best beef  in the world, the Scots say – and haggis,  

Made from meat, oats, and other things. Scottish raspberries are also very good;   the Scots like to make a dish called  cranachan with raspberries, oats, and whisky.  People with lots of money can  go to a hotel like Gleneagles,   near Perth – perhaps the most  famous hotel in Scotland today. 

It has 232 bedrooms, three golf courses  – and some of the best Scottish food. But good food is not a part of  life for everybody in Scotland,   and some poorer Scots do not eat very well. British men usually live to seventy-seven  

Years old, but in some parts of  Glasgow, they only live to fifty-four.  Better food is very important for  Scottish people today and tomorrow. Drink. The   word ‘whisky’ comes from the Gaelic  ‘uisge-beatha’ – the water of life.  Whisky – also called ‘Scotch’  – is made in a distillery. 

There are more than one hundred  distilleries in Scotland – some near   Edinburgh and Glasgow in the south, one on the island of Skye,   and three on the Orkneys in the north. There are nine on the small island of Islay.  About half of the distilleries are  near the River Spey, east of Inverness; 

Many visitors like to visit the distilleries  there and try the different whiskies.  Visitors to Edinburgh can visit the Scotch  Whisky Heritage Centre near the castle. Whisky is good but another drink  in Scotland is better: water.  The whisky is good because the  water from the hills is good. 

On a hot day, a drink of Scottish hill  water can be the best drink in the world. Chapter 10: Scotland and the world Scotland is a small country. Only  five million people live there.  But for millions more across the  world, Scotland is very important.  Why is this?

In the 1800s, many people left  Scotland and went to other countries.  People in the Highlands left their homes and  villages because they were very poor and hungry. Sometimes the rich people  there wanted them to leave.  Many others from the south  of Scotland left because  

They wanted a better life in a new country. Between the 1820s and 1914, more than two million   people went from Scotland across the seas to the  United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.  More went in the 1920s. Today there are  six million Scottish Americans in the USA. 

Every year many people walk through  New York on 6 April – Tartan Day.  A lot of Scottish Americans go  back to Scotland as tourists.  They want to find their past and to understand it. So Scotland is important in the  story of other countries too. 

Two great Scots in the USA are Alexander Graham  Bell (1847-1922) and Andrew Carnegie (1837-1919).  Bell made the first telephone. He began the Bell Telephone   Company in 1877, and by 1885, more than  150,000 people in the USA had telephones. 

In 1915, he made the first telephone call across  the United States from New York to San Francisco.  After he died in Canada,  at the age of seventy-five,   all the telephones in North America were  quiet for one minute to remember him.

Andrew Carnegie’s family left Scotland  when he was eleven and went to the USA.  Carnegie worked hard, and by the 1880s, he  had many businesses and was very rich – the   richest man in the world. When he stopped working,   he gave his money to other people. Carnegie’s money built schools,  

Universities, and other buildings in the USA,  the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.  Today his money still helps millions  of people around the world every year. Many Scots love to visit other  countries and do new things.  David Livingstone (1813-1873) went to Africa   to begin schools and to tell  Africans about Christianity. 

He was the first European to see the  Victoria Falls, between Zambia and Zimbabwe,  and the first to go across  Africa from the Atlantic in   the west to the Indian Ocean in the east. Alan Bean (1932-) is a Scottish American. 

When he went to the moon in 1969 –  only the fourth man to walk on the   moon – he took some tartan with him. Scots like to go to new places! Who is the most famous Scot in the world today? To many people it is the film  

Star Sean Connery (1930-). Sean Connery did a lot of different jobs before   he began working in television and cinema. Then in 1962, he was James Bond in   the first James Bond film, Dr No. After this he was famous everywhere.  He made six more James Bond films,  and made many other films after that. 

To many people, his best film  is The Untouchables (1987). Connery does not make films now  and does not live in Scotland,  but he loves Scotland very much and does not  want it to be part of the United Kingdom. Chapter 11: Scotland today and tomorrow

The story of Scotland is interesting and  sometimes exciting, but it is not an easy story.  Some Scots, like Sean Connery, want Scotland to be  just Scotland, and not part of the United Kingdom. Scotland is still a country of rich and poor. The past is important, but many Scots also want  

To think about Scotland today and tomorrow. The Scots in the USA, Australia, Canada,   and New Zealand love the old things –  the music, the dancing, the tartans.  But many of the Scots in Scotland want their  country to look to the future, not the past. 

Scotland, they say, can be like Norway – a country   with five million people and  with a lot of money from oil.  Scotland has money from oil, fish farming,  visits from tourists, banks, computers,   and many other businesses. And there is new life here:   new business, new cinema, new music. Things are changing in Scotland.

Today there is a Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.  It is in an interesting new  building on the Royal Mile.  People from every town and city in Scotland  come here to talk about their country.  Some Scots want Scotland to speak for  itself, in Europe and in the world.

What is in the future for Scotland? Nobody knows. But it is always going   to be a beautiful, special place. Perhaps one day you can walk along   the Royal Mile, climb the hills, or travel  to the islands, and see it for yourself. Chapter 1: Ireland’s story There are many different Irelands.

One Ireland is a country with beautiful high  mountains, big empty beaches, long deep rivers.  People go there to fish and swim and walk. They love Ireland because it is so quiet,   and because the Irish people  are so nice and friendly. Another Ireland is a country of stories and music. 

Most Irish people can sing, and  many famous musicians are Irish.  A lot of the most famous writers in  the English language are Irish too.  But some people in Ireland  speak only or mostly Irish. Now look again at Ireland. 

It is not only a quiet, beautiful, friendly place; it is also a country of blood, bombs, and death.  Between 1968 and 1998 thousands of  people in Northern Ireland died.  But most Irish people are not  interested in bombs and guns. What is Ireland really like? What can you see there? 

And what happened hundreds of  years ago, in Irish history? Turn the page to begin reading Ireland’s story. Chapter 2: Around the island Ireland is an island like a plate: it is  higher on the outside than in the centre.  Because of this, the centre of Ireland  is full of beautiful lakes and rivers,  

And many people go there to fish and sail. Ireland’s largest lake is Lough Neagh.  Its longest river, the Shannon,  is 260 kilometres long.  It goes through many small lakes and two  large ones, Lough Ree and Lough Derg. Most of Ireland’s mountains are near  the outside of the plate, near the sea. 

They are not very high – the highest is  Carrantouhill (1,040 metres) in the south-west.  But they are beautiful, and good places for walks.  At the Cliffs of Moher, in the west, you can  look 200 metres straight down into the sea. 

The Giant’s Causeway, in the north, is made of  strange rocks two metres tall with six sides. There are hundreds of small  islands in the sea around Ireland.  On the Aran Islands, in the west,  most people speak Irish, not English.  Life has changed very little  here in a hundred years.

Much of the north and west  of Ireland is very beautiful.  There are hundreds of flowers in the green fields,   and there are wonderful beaches and  lakes (called ‘loughs’ in Ireland).  The weather is warm and wet, with  rain and sun nearly every day. 

But it is hard to farm here  because of the rocks and mountains. The centre and east of Ireland are very different.  The land is good here, and Irish milk and  meat are some of the best in the world.  Farming is one of the most  important jobs in Ireland.

Thousands of horses live here too. Some of the best horses in the world   come from Ireland, and Irish people sell horses  to Britain, America, Australia, and Japan.  People go to watch horse races in  many Irish towns, and in Lay town,   north of Dublin, there are horse  races along the beach every September.

All Ireland’s important cities –  Dublin, Belfast, Derry, Galway,   Limerick, Cork, and Waterford – are near the sea. If we look at Ireland’s history, we will see why. Chapter 3: Celtic Ireland The Irish are a Celtic people. Thousands of years ago,   the Celts came to Ireland from  western France and northern Spain. 

They loved singing, and horses, and stories, and  they made beautiful gold and silver jewellery.  Many men wore gold rings  round their necks and arms. A Greek writer, Diodorus Siculus,  wrote this about the Celts: The Celts are… tall and strong. They  wear colourful shirts and trousers. 

Before they fight they hit their  long swords on their shields,   and shout with loud voices…. They are very good fighters.  When a Celt kills a man, he cuts off his  head and puts it above the door of his house. Finn Mac Cool was a famous Celtic fighter. There are many stories about  

Finn and his men, the Fianna. When he was a boy, he cooked a fish on a fire.  This fish knew everything about the world. Finn touched the hot fish with his finger,   and put his finger in his mouth. Then he knew everything about the world too. 

‘I know what is going to  happen tomorrow,’ he said. Another famous Celt was Cuchulainn. Cuchulainn’s father had a brother   called Conor, who was king of  Ulster, in the north of Ireland.  Conor had a big, dangerous  dog which killed many men.  Cuchulainn liked to play a  Celtic game called hurling. 

In hurling, the players can carry a small hard  ball in their hands and also hit it with a stick.  One day, when Cuchulainn was a boy, Conor  called everyone into his house to eat.  But Cuchulainn and his friends wanted to finish  their game of hurling, so they stayed outside. 

Conor’s dog came out of the house, attacked  the young boys and tried to kill them.  But Cuchulainn hit the hurling ball into the  dog’s mouth, and then killed it with his stick.  A big fighting dog is called a hound, and so after  this, Cuchulainn was called ‘The Hound of Ulster.’

Celtic games, like hurling, are  very popular in Ireland today.  Irish people play the Celtic  game called Gaelic football.  In Gaelic football the players  can use their feet and hands.  Celtic stories and music are popular too.  There are many Celtic rock bands –  one of them is called Finn MacCool. 

And some people in Ireland speak  the Celtic language called Irish. Irish is very different from English –  for example, the Irish for tree is craw,   and the word for woman is bean. But Celtic people in Wales,   Scotland, western France, and northern  Spain have languages very like Irish.

A hundred years ago, Irish  was nearly a dead language.  Most Irish people spoke English, and only the  poor people in the west of Ireland spoke Irish.  No one taught Irish in schools. Most Irish people speak English today too,  

But many children learn Irish at school, and many  older people in Dublin and Belfast learn it too.  They can listen to the Irish language  radio station, Raidio na Gaeltachta, and   watch Irish language television on TG4. The Irish language is popular again. Chapter 4: St Patrick, the Church, and the Vikings

In 401 some Irishmen came to Britain.  They took many people back  to Ireland and sold them.  One of these people was  Patrick, who was only sixteen.  For six years young Patrick  worked with sheep on a farm. Then, when he was twenty-two,  he ran away to France. 

He learned about God from monks  at a school in a French monastery.  In 432 he went back to Ireland  to teach the Irish about God.  The Irish kings listened to him, and  he built an important church in Armagh.

A hundred years later, Ireland was one of the  most important Christian countries in Europe, with   beautiful churches and monasteries everywhere. Irish writers wrote famous, important books   like the Book of Kells, which  you can see in Dublin today,  and there are pictures of St  Patrick in many Irish churches.

Another Irish churchman, called Brendan,  sailed to Scotland, Iceland, Greenland,   and America in a small leather boat. Some people said that this was not possible,  but in 1976 an Englishman, Tim  Severin, built a leather boat   called Brendan and sailed it from  Ireland to Iceland and America. 

You can see the Brendan at Craggaunowen  in County Clare in the west of Ireland. There were many beautiful, expensive things  in the Irish churches and monasteries,  and Norwegian Vikings came to Ireland  to steal them and kill the monks.  Because of this, the monks built tall  round towers beside their monasteries.

When the Vikings came the monks  ran into the towers to hide.  You can see these towers in Irish villages today. One of the most interesting Irish  monasteries is on Skellig Michael.  It is an island in the Atlantic sixteen  kilometres south-west of Ireland. 

It is a beautiful, windy place. The island is 240 metres high,   and in bad weather no boats can get there.  ‘There is no danger here,’ the Irish  monks thought; but they were wrong.  In 824, Vikings came in their long  ships to attack Skellig Michael too. But some Vikings came to Ireland to stay. 

They built towns by the sea – Dublin,  Cork, Waterford, and Limerick. The Celts liked to live in the country,  but the Vikings lived in towns.  Some of the Vikings married Celts,  and learned the Celtic language. The Vikings came to the north of Ireland too. 

One day two different Viking ships  came to a beautiful place in Ulster.  Both groups of Vikings wanted to stay there and  build a town, but there were too many of them.  The two groups of Vikings  looked at each other angrily. ‘We must fight,’ said a Viking from  the first ship. ‘The winners will  

Live and keep the land, and the losers will die.’ ‘No,’ said a man from the second  ship. ‘I have a better idea. Let’s   race to the beach in our ships. The first man who holds the land   in his hand can keep it. His people  can stay, and the others must leave.’

So the two ships raced towards the beach. One man stood at the front of each ship,   ready to jump down to the beach. Then one ship went in front of the other.  The man in the first ship looked  back at the second ship, and laughed. 

‘We’re going to win,’ he said.  ‘This land will belong to us.’ ‘No, it won’t,’ said the man in the second  ship angrily. ‘You will never win. Never!’  Suddenly, he took out his sword,  and cut off his hand with it. 

Then he threw the hand over the  heads of the men in the first ship.  The hand fell on the beach, and its  bloody fingers closed on the land. ‘This is our land,’ said the man with one hand.   ‘It will never belong to  you. Never, never, never!’

That, is the story of the Red Hand of Ulster.  You can see the Red Hand on  the flags of Northern Ireland.  To learn why it is so important, we need  to learn a little more about Irish history. Chapter 5: The English come to Ireland

A thousand years ago, Ireland had many  kings and they often fought each other.  In 1152 one Irish king, Dermot MacMurrough,   attacked another Irish king,  Tiernan O’Rourke, and took his wife.  Tiernan O’Rourke was the friend  of a third king, Rory O’Connor.  In 1166 Rory O’Connor was  made king of all Ireland. 

At this time, Tiernan and Rory attacked Dermot  MacMurrough, but Dermot escaped to England. Dermot then asked the king of England, Henry the  Second, to help him to fight Rory and Tiernan.  So in 1169 Henry’s men came to Ireland and fought  Rory and Tiernan, but they did not go home again. 

They took more and more of  the land for themselves.  They built cities by the sea, and big castles. Henry called himself King of England and Ireland.  But not all the Irish were happy about this. For the next four hundred years, English  kings tried to rule Ireland from Dublin.  But it was very difficult. 

The Irish did not listen to the King  of England – he was too far away. In 1536 the English church changed  from Catholic to Protestant.  So England was a Protestant country,  but Ireland was still Catholic.  For the Protestant English, their king  was the most important man in the Church, 

But for the Catholic Irish,   the most important man was the Pope – the  leader of the Catholic Church – in Rome.  There was a lot of fighting in Ireland  about this, and usually the English won.  The kings of England took more  land from the Catholic Irish,  

And gave it to Protestant Englishmen and Scotsmen. This plan was called the Plantation of Ulster,   because much of the land was in  Ulster, in the north of Ireland.  Englishmen from London built a new town in a  place called Derry, and called it Londonderry.

The Catholic Irish were angry about  this and wanted their land back.  In 1641 the Catholics attacked  the Protestants in Ulster.  They took their houses and clothes  and killed thousands of people. Eight years later, in 1649, Oliver  Cromwell took an English army to Ireland. 

Cromwell was the leader of the English  after the death of King Charles the First.  The English soldiers killed thousands  of Catholics in a town called Drogheda. In 1685 the people of England and   Scotland got a new king – James the Second. He was a Catholic, and he was not very popular. 

Many people wanted a different  king, and in 1688 William of Orange,   a Dutch Protestant, came to England. He was married to James’s daughter Mary,   and he wanted to be king of  England, Scotland, and Ireland. In those three countries people  who wanted James to be king fought  

Against people who wanted William to be king. Most of James’s friends were Catholics in Ireland.  With his help, they tried to  get their land back again.  They got most of it, but they  could not get Londonderry.  When they attacked it, the Protestants ran  inside the city walls and closed the gates. 

For 105 days, the Catholic soldiers  tried to get inside and kill them.  The Protestants were cold and afraid and hungry.  They ate cats and dogs and horses,  but they did not open the gates.  15,000 people died during this time,  which was called the Siege of Derry.

At last, three Protestant ships  came to Londonderry with food   and soldiers, and the siege was over. After that the new Protestant English   King, William of Orange, won two very  important battles against the Catholics:  the Battle of the Boyne in 1690,  and the Battle of Aughrim in 1691. 

The Catholic Irish didn’t fight  a big battle again for 100 years. So for the next hundred years life was  very difficult for the Catholic Irish.  Keeping their land or going to Catholic  schools or Catholic churches was very   difficult and they could not  speak or vote in Parliament.

All the important people in Ireland  were Protestants, and all the big,   beautiful houses and the best  farms belonged to Protestants. In most countries, people read about history  in books; in Ireland, history is alive today.  Every year, Protestants in  Londonderry march to remember 1688. 

In Belfast, on 12 July, Protestant Orangemen march  with music and songs about King William of Orange  – often called ‘King Billy’-  and the Battle of the Boyne.  Every year, Catholics are  angry about these marches. Chapter 6: The Great Hunger

In 1795 and 1798 the Irish, with the help of  French ships and soldiers, fought the British.  But the British won, and many Irishmen  – mostly Catholics – were killed.  Three years later, in 1801, the Act of  Union made Ireland and Britain one country,  

With one Parliament, in London. For a hundred years after this,   Catholic Irishmen (called Nationalists)  wanted to change the Act of Union,  and Protestants (called  Unionists) wanted to keep it. At this time, in the west of Ireland, many  poor Catholics lived on very small farms. 

They had very little money, and  often they had only potatoes to eat.  The poor, stony land was not good for  many things, but it was good for potatoes.  But in the 1840s something killed the potatoes.  One day they were fine, and then  suddenly they were black and dead. 

The poor Irish farmers and their  families had nothing to eat.  Thousands of them died, and many more went on  ships to America, to find a new and better life. Some rich Protestants were happy when  the poor farmers started to leave. 

They wanted to keep cows on their  land, so they asked the ships to take   the poor people away from Ireland to America. But hundreds of people died on the ships too. When the Irish people came to America,  they lived in big cities, like New York. 

Every year on St Patrick’s Day thousands of  Americans march through New York, and remember   how Irish people died, because there was no food. It is the biggest St Patrick’s Day parade   in the world, because so many  Irish people live in America.

When these poor Irish people died, the  Irish language nearly died with them.  Most Catholic churchmen spoke English,  and the government told Irish teachers   to use English in school. Only poor people spoke Irish.  ‘Irish is not important,’ the  teachers and churchmen said.  They thought that speaking  English was more modern.

But some people thought that this was wrong. In 1893 a group of Irish writers tried to   help the Irish language. ‘Irish is the language   of the Irish people,’ they said. ‘Many countries have a language,   games, music, and stories that belong  to them. We must have those things too.’

A lot of people agreed with them.  These people called themselves Sinn  Fein, which is Irish for ‘We Ourselves.’  At first, the people in Sinn Fein were only  interested in Irish language, music, and games.  But later, they began to  think about other things too.

‘We don’t want to belong to Britain,’ they  said. ‘We want Ireland to be a free country.’ Chapter 7: Fighting to be free By 1900, life was a little  better for Catholics in Ireland.  They could have land, they could  vote and speak in Parliament,  

They had Catholic schools and churches. But most Catholics were very poor,   and every year, thousands of them went  to America or Britain to look for work. Catholic Irish Nationalists  wanted to end the Act of Union.  They wanted an Irish Parliament  to decide about things in Ireland. 

But the Protestants did not want to give  it to them – and, not for the first time,   they were ready to fight for  the things that they wanted. In 1914, the British government decided  to give Ireland an Irish Parliament.  ‘Ireland will still belong to Britain,’  they said. ‘But the Irish Parliament  

Will decide on Irish things, like  Irish schools, roads, and police.’  Most Irish Nationalists were happy about  this, but the Protestant Unionists were angry. Most Protestants lived in  Northern Ireland near Belfast.  This part of Ireland is called Ulster.  Soon the Protestant Unionist army began  marching through the streets of Belfast  

With their leader, Sir Edward Carson. They wanted to keep the Act of Union.  ‘Ulster will fight,’ they said,  ‘and Ulster will be right!’ The British government did not know what to do. They wanted to give Ireland a Parliament,  

But they did not want to fight the Unionists. But then, in 1914, the First World War started.  Most of the Protestant Unionists, and  many thousands of Irish Catholics,   went with the British army  to fight against Germany. But many Irish Nationalists stayed in Ireland. ‘We don’t want to fight the Germans,’ they said.  

‘We want the British to leave Ireland.  Perhaps the Germans can help us.’ In 1916, a group of Irish Nationalists-mostly  Catholics – decided to fight for a free Ireland.  They were interested in Irish music, Irish  history, the Irish language, and Irish games. 

But now they bought guns in Germany and tried  to bring them to Ireland in a German ship.  Their leader, Patrick Pearse, wanted  much more than an Irish Parliament.  He wanted Ireland to be free from Britain. On Easter Monday 1916, Pearse and his men went  into the Post Office, in the middle of Dublin. 

Pearse walked to the door. ‘Irishmen and Irishwomen,’   he said. ‘Ireland belongs to the Irish  people! Today Ireland is a free country!’ But the British did not agree. For six long days there was a   battle in Dublin, and many men died. After the battle, the government said  

That Pearse and fourteen other important  men had to die, and they died in prison.  Nearly two thousand other  Sinn Fein men went to prison. Easter Monday 1916 was a very  important day in Irish history.  After that day, everything was different.  In his poem Easter 1916 the Irish  writer William Butler Yeats wrote: 

All changed, changed utterly.  A terrible beauty is born. In 1919, Sinn Fein started  to fight the British again.  The Sinn Fein army was called the  Irish Republican Army, or IRA.  From 1919 to 1921 the IRA killed  hundreds of policemen and soldiers,   and the police and soldiers  killed hundreds of IRA men too. 

In Dublin, there were IRA men and women  everywhere, but it was very hard for   the British soldiers to find them. The IRA leader was Michael Collins,   but the British government  didn’t even have a photo of him! In 1921 the British government decided  to talk to Sinn Fein and the IRA, 

And in that year, for the first time in history,   most of Ireland had an Irish government,  with an Irish President in Dublin. But the Irish Republic is only  three-quarters of Ireland.  One quarter, in Northern Ireland, stayed British.  And here, fifty years later, the trouble  between Protestants and Catholics started again.

Chapter 8: Northern Ireland In 1921, about 60 percent of the people  of Northern Ireland were Protestant,   and about 40 percent were Catholic. Today the numbers are about   53 percent and 40 percent. Most of the Protestants want to be British,  

And most of the Catholics want to be Irish. Hundreds of people have died because of this. From 1921 to 1971 Northern Ireland  had a Parliament at Stormont.  There were always more Protestants than Catholics,  so the Protestants could do what they wanted.  Protestants had most of the  best jobs and the best houses. 

Most of the police were Protestant  too, and they were afraid of the IRA.  At the same time, many Catholics  were afraid of the police.  Sometimes the IRA tried to kill the police,  and the police hit back at the Catholics.  It was a circle without an end.

In 1968 Catholics started  to ask for a better life.  They marched through the streets of Belfast  and Derry, asking for better jobs and houses.  But the Protestant police and Orangemen  attacked the Catholic marchers.  Many marchers were badly hurt, and  all of them were angry and afraid.

In 1969 British soldiers came to Northern  Ireland to try to stop the fighting, and at   first many Catholics were happy to see them. But then the IRA started to kill soldiers and   policemen, and so the British soldiers and police  tried to find the IRA and put them in prison. 

Sometimes they put the wrong people in prison, and  so the Catholics didn’t like the British soldiers. Over the next thirty years,  many terrible things happened.  On ‘Bloody Sunday’ – 30 January 1972 – British  soldiers killed 14 Catholic marchers in Derry.  ‘The marchers had guns,’ the soldiers  said. But nobody found any guns. 

On ‘Bloody Friday’ – 21 July 1972 – the IRA  put 22 bombs in Belfast, all at the same time.  9 people died and 130 people were hurt, Protestant   and Catholic, British and Irish. Some of them lost arms and legs. The IRA put bombs in pubs and streets and shops. 

They killed soldiers and policemen, but they  also killed thousands of ordinary people.  Protestants in the Ulster  Defence Association – the   UDA – killed thousands of ordinary Catholics too. These Protestant fighters are called Loyalists. By 1979 there were hundreds  of IRA and UDA men in prison. 

At first they were political prisoners,  like soldiers in prison during a war.  They could wear ordinary clothes,  and they did not do prison work.  Then Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime  Minister, decided that this must stop.  ‘These men are criminals,’ she said, ‘so  they must be the same as other prisoners.’

Because of this some prisoners  decided in 1980 to stop eating.  They drank water but they did not eat. Day after day, they got thinner and thinner.  After 66 days, the first man, Bobby Sands, died. Then another man died, and another.  Ten men died in prison, because they  wanted to be political prisoners. 

Most British people thought Mrs Thatcher was  right, but a lot of Irish Catholics didn’t agree.  More and more of them started  to vote for Sinn Fein. In many parts of Northern Ireland  there are Nationalist or Loyalist   paintings on the walls of houses. The Loyalists usually show the Red  

Hand of Ulster, or King William of  Orange and the Battle of the Boyne.  The Nationalists show Celtic pictures,   and pictures of Bobby Sands. Both of them often show men with guns. In 1998, the British and Irish governments  met with Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists. 

They wanted to end the  fighting in Northern Ireland.  Together, they made the Good Friday Agreement. This Agreement said that Catholics and   Protestants must work together in  the government of Northern Ireland. Today, Catholics and Protestants still do not  agree about many things in Northern Ireland.  But after thirty years of fighting,  

People are starting to talk to each other. And most people are happy about that. Chapter 9: Dublin and Belfast Dublin. Dublin is the most important  city in the Republic of Ireland. Its population (the number of  people who live there) is 496,000.  The River Liffey goes  through the centre of Dublin. 

Some people say that Ireland s famous black beer,   Guinness, is water from the  River Liffey, but it is not true.  But you can walk beside the river, and drink  Guinness in a pub when you are thirsty. One of the most beautiful buildings  beside the river is the Custom House. 

There is a nice walk along the river from  the Custom House to the O’Connell Bridge.  North of the bridge is O’Connell Street.  Here you can see the Post Office,  famous for Easter Monday 1916.  Not far from here is St Mary’s,  Dublin’s biggest Catholic church.

South of O’Connell Bridge is Trinity College,  Ireland’s oldest and most famous university.  In here you can see Ireland’s oldest books, like  the Book of Kells, which is a thousand years old.  The beautiful Bank of Ireland  is opposite Trinity College.  Ireland’s first Parliament was in this building.

Near Trinity College you can see  the famous statue of Molly Malone.  People say that she was a poor but beautiful girl,   who sold fish called cockles and  mussels on the streets to make money.  But sadly, she died when she was still young. There is a famous Irish song about Molly:

In Dublin’s fair city Where the girls are so pretty  I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone As she wheeled her wheelbarrow Down streets broad and narrow  Singing ‘Cockles, and mussels, alive alive-oh!’ Some of Ireland’s best town  houses are in Merrion Square. 

Many of Ireland’s most famous writers,  soldiers, and leaders lived here.  They walked and talked in the small park in the  square, or in St Stephen’s Green, not far away.  Between Merrion Square and St  Stephen’s Green is Leinster House,   the home of Ireland’s Parliament today.

Dublin also has Phoenix Park, one  of the largest parks in Europe.  Ireland’s President lives here, in a house  called, in Irish, Aras an Uachtarain.  Not far away from the Phoenix  Park is the old Kilmainham Prison.  Here visitors can see how some of Ireland’s  most famous men and women lived in prison.

Dublin is a city of theatres,  music, and fine shops too.  And there are dozens of pubs, big and small. Many people like to go to the pub to   drink beer, talk, and tell stories. For example, there is a story about a  

Visitor and an Irish farmer in the country. ‘Excuse me, can you tell me the way   to Dublin, please?’ the visitor asks. The farmer thinks for a long time. Then he says:  ‘No, I’m sorry. If you want to go to  Dublin, this is the wrong place to start.’ Belfast.

Belfast (population 276,000) is the biggest  city in Northern Ireland, famous for the ships,   aeroplanes, and clothes that were made here. The Titanic was built here in the   Harland and Wolff shipyard. In 1912 the Titanic was the biggest,   fastest, most expensive ship in the world. ‘This ship can never sink,’ people said. 

But when the Titanic went to sea for the first  time, it sank, and about 1,500 people died.  Many of them were poor Irish people who  wanted to start a new life in America.  Now this part of the city is called the  Titanic Quarter, and it has new shops,  

Offices, bars, cafes, and hotels. But you can still see the big Harland   and Wolff cranes, called Samson  and Goliath, from all over Belfast. At Victoria Square, in the centre of Belfast,  there are new shops, restaurants, and cinemas. 

And there are fine old buildings to see – City  Hall, the Custom House with its wonderful statues,  the Ulster Bank, and McHugh’s Bar  – the oldest building in Belfast.  Once it was a house by the Belfast  River, and today it is a modern bar. Chapter 10: Four Irish cities Cork.

Cork is the second largest city  in the Republic of Ireland.  In 820 the Vikings attacked  a Christian monastery here,   and then stayed to build a town by the River Lee. Cork is in the south-west of Ireland and   it has a wonderful harbour for ships. Many poor Irish people sailed from Cork to  

America at the time of the Great Hunger, and today  ships and planes go from Cork all over the world. 123,000 people live here today, and  the city of Cork is famous for music,   dancing, theatre, and film. Many visitors come here too, on  

Their way to the beautiful south-west of Ireland. In 2005 Cork was the European Capital of Culture. Londonderry, or Derry. Derry, with a population of 105,000,  is the second city of Northern Ireland.  Protestants call it Londonderry, because in 1600  English Protestants from London built a city here,  

But Catholics call the city Derry. There was a small monastery here,   beside the River Foyle, in the time  of the Vikings, but the great walls   of Londonderry were built in the 1600s. You can walk around these walls today:   they are one and a half kilometres  long and nearly six metres wide. 

The old guns from the Siege of  Derry are still there on the walls.  But many people want to forget  the battles of the past.  In the last week of October, thousands of  people come to Derry for the Halloween festival. 

There is music, theatre, and a big parade,  in the biggest street party in Ireland. Galway. Galway (population 65,800) is in the west of  Ireland, at the mouth of the River Corrib. In this part of the country the Irish  language is very strong, and you will  

See it and hear it everywhere. It is a centre for Irish music,   singing and dance, and there is an  Irish language theatre in Galway too. From Galway you can visit Connemara, with  its beautiful wild lakes and mountains.  The Aran Islands are close by too. 

People speak Irish here, and many  visitors like to come to these wild,   lonely islands to hear Irish music in the pubs  and see the difficult life of the islanders. Waterford.  Waterford (population 45,000)  is in the south-east of Ireland.  It was Ireland’s first city; the  Vikings came here in the 850s,  

And they came back in 914 to make the city. It is famous for its glass (people have made   glass here since 1783) and for  the ships that were built here.  Three rivers meet the sea at  Waterford – the Rivers Barrow,  

Nore and Suir – and there are fine mountains  and beaches to visit in this part of Ireland. Chapter 11: Stories, music, and dancing Irish people love stories, and many  great writers were born in Ireland.  Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)  was a churchman in Dublin. 

In his book Gulliver’s Travels a man called  Gulliver visits many strange countries. In Lilliput all the people are  about ten centimetres high and   in the country of the Houyhnhnms  horses are cleverer than people.  But when Gulliver comes home,  nobody believes his stories. James Joyce (1882-1941) wrote  all his stories about Dublin. 

His most famous book, Ulysses, is 700 pages long.  It is the story of everything  that one man, Leopold Bloom,   does in Dublin in one day – 16 June 1904. And every year on 16 June – ‘Bloomsday’ – people   visit Dublin to talk about Ulysses  and to visit the places in the story.

Joyce’s friend, Samuel Beckett (1906-89) won  the Nobel Prize for his work in the theatre.  His most famous work, Waiting for Godot,   is about two poor Irish men who  are waiting for a man called Godot.  Perhaps Godot is a man, perhaps he is God  – they don’t know. But he never comes.

Joyce and Beckett were born in Ireland,  but they went to work and live in France.  They had new and exciting ideas, and  some people in Ireland did not like them.  To the Irish government and the Catholic  Church, books like Ulysses were wrong, 

And after 1929 Irish people could not  buy books like these in the shops.  Life was difficult in other ways too – many  people had large families and little money.  Ireland was a poor country, and  it was difficult to find work. 

Every year, many young people left Ireland  to look for work in other countries. Because of these things some singers too  were very angry about life in Ireland.  Bob Geldof was born in Ireland in 1951. His mother died when he was seven,  

And his father was often away from  home, so young Bob was often alone.  He saw many poor people in Dublin,  and his band, the Boomtown Rats,   sang loud, angry songs. In their song Banana Republic,   they said Ireland was a poor country with a bad  government, and too many police and churchmen:

Everywhere I go now and everywhere I see the  black and blue uniforms Police and priests.  Bob Geldof wanted to change the  world, and in 1985 he planned some   concerts called Band Aid and Live Aid. He used the money from the concerts to   help hungry people in Africa. In 2005 he did this again,  

With a concert called Live 8. With another Irish musician called Bono,   Bob Geldof asked the presidents of  many countries to give help to Africa. Bono is from an Irish group called U2.  Some people say that U2 are the  biggest rock band in the world. 

Like Bob Geldof, the band do a lot of  work to help the poor people of the world.  Two other famous Irish pop groups are  the boy bands Boyzone and Westlife.  There are famous women singers too, like  Sinead O’Connor, Enya, and Aoife Ni Fhearraigh.

There are many famous singers and  writers from Northern Ireland too.  Seamus Heaney was born in  1939 on a farm near Derry.  In 1995 he won the Nobel Prize for his poems,  and people read them all over the world.  The famous singer Van Morrison  grew up in Belfast in the 1950s. 

Most people in Ireland love music. People sing in pubs in every Irish town,   and Irish songs are very popular  on television in other countries.  Ireland has won the Eurovision Song Contest  for the best pop song in Europe seven times;   this is more than any other country.

The Irish word for party is ceili – a time for  people to play music, tell stories, and dance.  For hundreds of years, the Irish  people have loved dancing at ceilis.  In the 1700s, dancing teachers  went from town to town.  People lived in small houses, so they  often danced on the country roads. 

They wore their best clothes to dance,  and played music all day and all night. In many Irish dances, the dancers  keep their hands still by their sides,   and move their feet and legs very quickly. Today thousands of Irish children learn  

Irish dancing, and the best dancers from all  over the world come to dance in Ireland too.  The Irish dancers Michael Flatley and  Jean Butler are famous in many countries –  thousands of people have seen them  in Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. Chapter 12: A country for young people

Today, many things are changing in Ireland. It is a country of young people: nearly   50 percent of its people are under twenty-five. Fifty years ago, the Catholic church was full of   old men, and they decided what people could do. Life was difficult for women and young people. 

Today, the church is important, but the ideas  of women and young people are important too.  Two of Ireland’s presidents were women  – Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese.  For Ireland’s young people the future is about pop  music and computers as well as farming and horses.

Ireland is a part of the European Union, and  most Irish people are very happy about this.  Ireland is not a poor country  anymore; a lot of business people   come to Ireland and build factories. Now, perhaps 10 percent of Ireland’s   population are people who have come  from other countries to find work there. 

Many come from Poland and other countries  in Eastern Europe, and others come from   China and countries in Africa. Today, young Irish people do not   have to leave their country to find  work; they can find work at home.  Ireland is an interesting,  exciting place for young people. But of course, there are always problems. 

There is more crime in Ireland than before. And  in Northern Ireland, the problems are not over.  Every year the Protestant Unionists march  through the streets with their music. ‘We will always be British,’ they say,  and they sing about William of Orange.  ‘The British must leave Ireland,’ say  the Catholic Nationalists in Sinn Fein. 

The Unionists and the Nationalists  cannot both have what they want.  Here, history helps no one. But most Irish people, in the north and south of  Ireland, do not want bombs, guns, and fighting.  They want to enjoy life. They want people to visit  

Their island, to walk in their beautiful  mountains, fish in their quiet rivers,  drink and sing and laugh in their pubs, dance at  their ceilis, and most important of all, to talk.  Most of the time, the Irish are  the friendliest people in Europe. And the three most important  words in the Irish language are:

Cead mile failte ‘A hundred thousand welcomes’