Julia Keay
Show Your Colours
The Union Jack: The Story of the British Flag
By Nick Groom
Atlantic Books 331pp £16.99 order from our bookshop
‘The Union Jack’, says Nick Groom in his masterly Story of the British Flag, ‘is an international flag, representing four nations and defining them in their relationships to each other.’ Bless him for trying to make it sound simple. In fact this most recognisable of (inter)national flags is so weighed down with political, religious and heraldic significance, so hung about with rules and regulations, and so widely misunderstood, misinterpreted and misappropriated, that it is surprising it can still summon the strength to flutter.
For a start – four nations? Where, then, is Wales? According to a lofty being Groom calls ‘Garter Knight of Arms’ [sic], Wales is not represented in the Union Jack because ‘Wales has never been a kingdom’. ‘There is no more reason to add Wales ... than there would be
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