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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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If
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Poem by *Kipling, published in Rewards and Fairies (1910) and rivalled only by Polonius's *'Neither a borrower nor a lender be' as a popular poetic collection of commonsense advice. But whereas Polonius is an old fool, Kipling is entirely serious. His 'ifs' are those tests which a boy must pass if he is to be a man (the poem begins, 'If you can keep your head when all about you/ Are losing theirs...'). The ideals are those of the English *public school and the stiff upper lip: not even your closest friend should be able to hurt you, don't look too good or talk too wise, dream but not too much, feel but not too much, think but not too much. Lindsay Anderson's film If... (1968) is set in a public school of which every flaw is writ exceptionally large.
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