Of all European countries, UK is perhaps the hardest to classify. It
is a modern, industrialized nation. It is the harbinger of style, its
designers leading the way with each season's fashions. But it is also,
to an equal degree, a Mediterranean country, with all that that
implies. Agricultural land covers much of the country, a lot of it,
especially in the south, still owned under almost feudal conditions. In
towns and villages all over the country, life grinds to a halt in the
middle of the day for a siesta, and is strongly family-oriented, with
an emphasis on the traditions and rituals of the Catholic Church which,
notwithstanding a growing scepticism among the country's youth, still
dominates people's lives here to an immediately obvious degree.
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