Firstly to Ruth Archer -- sorry Ruth I didn't make myself clear. I personally believe that there are two types of English -- those who grew up here and those who have settled and chosen to make their lives here as adults. To me both are equally 'English' and I strongly believe that England finds its unique identity and strength in the melding of the two. The only reason I point out any differentiation is because you pick up a lot of your adult identity from the culture in which you grow up.

The 'English' who I described as being "neither one thing nor the other" are those ex-pat children who grow up in other countries absorbing that country's culture but never considering themselves a part of it. They come to England thinking they are the definition of 'Englishness' only to find out that their imagined version of England and what it is to be English is not true either.


Secondly to WAV, where you said 'If someone is born in a country and they return to live there, then that person is a repat. - NOT an immigrant.'

Sounds like I struck a nerve!??

You said 'I've read widely from the canon of English verse; I keep fit with lawn tennis; my staple meal is pottages; my repertoire of Chants, hymns, and songs is English; I participate in the NE England folk and poetry scenes; I've worked on my pronunciation and done a couple of technical courses here; I grow English ivy;' That certainl makes you something, but it's not 'English'.

If you're brought up in a different country you're culturally an immigrant regardless of what it says on your birth certificate. That doesn't stop you being English in my book, but it sounds like it does in yours.