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Britain's outsized contribution to popular music — from the Beatles and the Stones to punk, rave and grime — and a live…

The high street institution known as M&S: clothing, homeware and a food hall of outsized cultural importance, occupying a peculiar place in…

A dark, intensely salty yeast extract spread, thinly scraped onto buttered toast, and so divisive that its own advertising is built around…

The first of May and its bank holiday Monday: an ancient celebration of the start of summer, with maypoles, morris dancing and…

Dancing around a tall ribboned pole, weaving the ribbons into patterns — a May Day custom that is genuinely old in form…

The 24th of June, and the solstice a few days before it — marked in Britain with bonfires, dawn gatherings at Stonehenge…

Small sweet pastry pies filled with mincemeat — a spiced mixture of dried fruit and suet containing no meat at all —…

A traditional English folk dance performed by teams in white with bells at the knees, waving handkerchiefs or clashing sticks, usually outside…

The British Mother's Day: the fourth Sunday of Lent, older than the American holiday and on an entirely different date.

Britain's modest but serious mountains — none above 1,350m, all of them capable of killing the unprepared, and the birthplace of recreational…

Searching the Thames foreshore at low tide for objects the river has preserved — once the work of the destitute, now a…

Dried marrowfat peas soaked and cooked until they collapse into a thick green purée — the traditional accompaniment to fish and chips,…

Britain's system of constitutional monarchy, in which a hereditary sovereign is head of state but political power rests entirely with an elected…

The legally enforced floor on hourly pay in Britain, introduced in 1999 and now among the highest relative to average earnings in…