BRITISH ICONS

Hi, my name is Seila and I am going to be talking about the british icons.
So, to begin with, there is no doubt in my mind that the most iconic British icon in our
current age is the Queen. She is the figurehead of British society and her reign has
been going on for over 60 years. Now, I am not going to go into my opinion of the
queen and the royal family because I will probably get arrested. But I am of the opinion
that the Queen and the royal family attract a lot of tourism to Britain. A lot of tourist
go there specifically to visit places like Buckingham Palace in Londo and there is a lot of
merchandise that is sold, souvenirs and things like that related to the Queen that make
a lot of money for the royal family and Britain. Also a lot of people go to Britain to see
the changing of the guards which is something that happens, I don’t know how often,
but it happens from time to time near and around Buckingham Palace. Everybody
wants to take a picture with the Beefeater, soldiers (guards) who have those kind of,
big black furry hats on their heads and also in Britain every year they have the Queen’s
Speech and there is a lot of fuss (show unnecessary) around that event and a lot of
people tune in on TV during that time to watch it. So yes, she is a hugely popular icon
in British society.

The next icon I am going to speak about is James Bond. James Bond as well is
quinstessentially ( representing the most perfect or typical example of quality or class)
British. He personifies everything that is elegant and british and a lot of people
consider him to be quite sexist. I guess there is some truth in that but for me he
personifies everything that is masculine and he is a player ( confident, successful man
with many sexual partners). He likes to have a lot of flings (short period of enjoyment
or wild behavior) with women. But if we put that part aside, he has quite a lot of good
qualities as well. He is the personification of the British gentleman.

Other icons that we can talk about…is Shakespeare, he revolutionized literature and he
has been a huge inspiration for many writers and although his writing can be quite
difficult to digest, especially for foreigners, it is definitely something that is worth a
read and that will make you aware of how much the language has developed in the
last 300 years or more.

George Orwell as well, he was a fantastic writer. In my opinion, he has written some of
the most inspiring books of the history (20th century). My favorite has to be 1984, it
was hugely popular book. Animal farm, that was also a hugely successful book written
by him.

Harry potter is another British icon, written by JK Rowling and she was on the dole (en
el paro) apparently when she was writing this book. She went from being very poor to
being to being extremely wealthy (rich) literally overnight. I am sure it was not an
overnight success but it seems like it was. Harry Potter isn’t really my cup of tea
personally. I don’t really like this kind of trilogies that become very commercially
successful and harry potter, just the character for me, he is just such an annoying
character and the story… it all just seems really cheesy(cursi) to me but hats off to JK
Rowling because she has had a huge success with that saga.

If we speak about British icons and food, I am probably going to say the English
Breakfast is an iconic meal in British culture. Sunday roast as well is something that
most Britain people eat on a Sunday just like Spanish people here eat paella religiously
every weekend.

Now, if I go on to rock stars, if we go on to music, the Beatles have to be one of the

greatest British exports of the 20th century. They were probably one of the first boy
bands really. Nowadays, boy bands are a dime a dozen (very common and of no
particular value), there are loads of them and back in the days there weren’t so many
boy bands and I think the Beatles really put the concept of boy band on the map. Paul
McCarney has had success since the Beatles broke up.

The rolling Stones, again, a huge British export, one of the biggest bands on the
planet… On of my favourite British musicians was unfortunately, George Michael who
passed away I think 2 years ago, his voice was incredible.

Amy Winehouse, what a loss, another british icon of the music industry, she
unfortunately dabbled (take part in an activity in a casual or superficial way) a bit too
much in drugs and she ruined her career and her life and ultimately died because of it
but she was an amazing talent/singer. It is a great loss.

And then we have got the Spice Girls, another commercial pop band…