STIFF UPPER LIP: An Emotional History of Britain

Recording from Ian Hislop’s talk, ‘Stiff Upper Lip: An Emotional History of Britain’ for CVHF, Saturday, 29th June 2013

The stiff upper lip: the quintessential mark of British stoicism in adversity. Ian
Hislop’s three-part BBC series presented us with ‘an emotional history of Britain’ over the past 300 years, finally asking whether the British lip is still firm and whether indeed it can or should be in a world awash with sentiment. With his habitual wit, Ian Hislop reveals why the stiff upper lip emerged at all, who its greatest proponents and detractors were, (with fascinating insights into two of our greatest heroes, Wellington and Nelson), and why we ended up with the bulldog rather than the cock for our national symbol. This talk is as thought-provoking as it was funny.