When British Empireexpanded and the country absorbed peoples

from throughout the globe, English culture has been accented

with diversecontributions from Afro-Caribbeans, Asians, Muslims,
and other immigrant groups. Even as England has become ever more
diverse culturally, it continues to exert a strong cultural influence on
the rest of the world.

Daily life and social customs

Historically, English daily life and customs were markedly different
in urban and rural areas. Today, even though the English are among
the world’s most cosmopolitan and well-traveled people, ties to the
rural past remain strong. Urbanites, for example, commonly retire to
villages and country cottages.
Many holidays in England, such as Christmas, are celebrated
throughout the world, though the traditional English Christmas is less
a commercial event than an opportunity for singing and feasting.
English cuisine has traditionally been based on beef, lamb, pork,
chicken, and fish, all cooked with the minimum of embellishment and
generally served with potatoes and one other vegetable. Fish and
chips, traditionally wrapped in old newspapers to keep warm on the
journey home, has long been one of England’s most popular carryout
dishes. 

Religion
Although the Church of England is formally established as the official
church, with the monarch at its head, England is a highly secularized
country. 
The  non-Anglican Protestant churches have nominally fewer
members, but there is probably greater dedication among them, as
with the Roman Catholic church. There is virtually complete religious
tolerance in England and no longer any overt prejudice against
Catholics.
There are also large communities of Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, and
Hindus.

Literature
Little is known of English literature before the arrival of the Anglo-
Saxons, though echoes of England’s Celtic past resound in Arthurian
legend. Anglo-Saxon literature, written in the Old English language,
is remarkably diverse. Its surviving corpus includes hymns, lyric
poems, songs, and the epic poem Beowulf, which dates from the 9th
or 10th century. Geoffrey Chaucer epitomized both the courtly
philosophical concerns and the earthy vernacular of this period in his
Canterbury Tales. The Elizabethan era of the late 16th century
fostered the flowering of the European Renaissance in England and
the golden age of English literature. The plays of William
Shakespeare, while on their surface representing the culmination of
Elizabethan English, achieve a depth of characterization and richness
of invention that have fixed them in the dramatic repertoire of
virtually every language.

Music of England

The beginnings of art music in England can be traced to

plainsong. With the aid of monks and troubadours traveling
throughout Europe, musical forms of many regions were
freely intermingled and spread quickly. English folk music—
exemplified by ballads, sea chanteys, children’s game songs —has
had a tremendous influence on the folk music.
However, 20th-century British popular music, especially rock music,
had even more visible impact on world culture. 
By the mid-1960s, English “beat” groups such as the Beatles,
the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Who had burst onto the world
stage; in the United States their sensational popularity was labeled
the British Invasion. Thereafter, rock and pop music remained
among Britain’s main cultural exports, marked by the international
popularity of Led Zeppelin, Elton John, and Pink Floyd in the 1970s
and punk groups such as the Sex Pistols and the Clash later in the
decade; performers as various as the Police, the Smiths, Boy George,
the Spice Girls, Oasis, Blur, and Radiohead in the 1980s and ’90s; and
the techno music of the turn of the century.
The Greatest Britons of all Time 
chosen by the people of Britain. 
In November 2002, the British public voted to find the Greatest Briton of all
time. Over a million people voted. 

Here are the results:

1. Sir Winston Churchill 

Winston Churchill was a politician, a soldier, an artist, and the
20th century's most famous and celebrated Prime Minister. 
2. Diana, Princess of Wales 
Diana was one of the world's most high-profile, most
photographed, and most iconic celebrities. 
3. Charles Darwin 
Charles Darwin was a British naturalist of the nineteenth century. He and
others developed the theory of evolution. This theory forms the basis for the
modern life sciences.
4. William Shakespeare 
Shakespeare was a playwright and poet whose body of works
is considered the greatest in English literature.
5. Sir Isaac Newton  
Isaac Newton was a mathematician and scientist who invented
differential calculus and formulated the theory of universal
gravitation, a theory about the nature of light, and three laws of motion. 
6. Queen Elizabeth I  
The daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Queen
Elizabeth 1 .Her reign was marked by several plots to
overthrow her, the execution of Mary Queen of Scots (1587),
the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588), and domestic
prosperity and literary achievement. 
7. John Lennon 
John Lennon was a musician and composer who was a member of the
Beatles, the biggest rock band of the 1960s.