Celebrated novelist and Booker-Prize nominee Zadie Smith has launched a scathing attack on England – something which has landed her in hot water with some of our more nationalistic media commentators.
During an interview with New York magazine, Smith described her homeland as "a disgusting place" – a move which has, of course, deeply upset flag-waving Daily Mail readers who remain staunch in their belief that Alf Garnett was a prophet and Princess Diana the bestest, most special lady who ever lived.
Everyone else – especially at hecklerspray HQ – took one look at Zadie’s thoughtstream and came up with the following conclusion:
That she’s absolutely bloody right.
Zadie Smith (Books) told New York:
"When I think of England now I just think about the England that I loved, and it’s just gone. It’s the way people look at each other on the train – just general stupidity, madness, vulgarity, stupid TV shows, aspirational arseholes, money everywhere. It’s just a disgusting place, it’s terrifying. Maybe I’m just getting old."
Expanding on this during an appearance on Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour, Zadie clarified:
"I love England but the things that I don’t love about it are those things – I don’t love trash TV and I’m sad when I see people glaring at each other on the Tube. Those things upset me, but they only upset you when you love your country so much that you’re sad when you feel bits of it to be in decline."
Which is essentially just a nice way of saying what hecklerspray has been carping on about for years: that modern-day England is a chav-fuelled cesspit of coked-up, boozed-up bitterness, a churning vomit-speckled sea of happy slapping, illiteracy, selfishness, GCSE failure and rejected McDonalds applications, all overseen by a decrepit monarchy hell-bent on preserving this decaying island as some some of putrid Elizabethian theme park.
Still. Big Ben is pretty nice to look at, isn’t it?
Read more:
Author Smith Raps English Culture – BBC News
[story by C J Davies]