Features
Where did English eccentricity originate from, and how has it inspired? Meet some famous English eccentrics and discover some of the finest quirky, if a bit eccentric, hobbies...
A literary construct?
Fading English gentry and the heavy expectancy that possibly over-shadows our true eccentricity aside, there is much to back up the school of thought that eccentricity is an inherent part of our history, heritage and identity. English eccentricity has inspired a number of literary works, film, art, ideologies and behaviour – both individual and collective.
Famous English eccentrics
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears." (Henry David Thoreau)
Strange ways…
Of passing the time…One of the characteristics often displayed by a person with an eccentric personality is an obsessive affiliation with a hobby. Indeed, the English as a whole are well known for partaking (often with obsessive vigour) in slightly odd, all-consuming pastimes that at best can be described as ‘quirky’.
