ST GEORGE'S DAY IN ST GEORGE'S CULTURAL QUARTER

I take Harry and Grace to the Cultural Quarter today, for an afternoon of family activities to celebrate St George's Day. The full and proper name for this part of town is St George's Cultural Quarter, appropriately enough!

The fun takes place mostly in Orton Square, outside Curve - and it's a lovely sunny day for it. It's odd to think of these celebrations taking place in Orton Square, since Joe Orton (Leicester's most famous modern playwright and a scandalous figure in and beyond his own lifetime) was one of those characters who helped form my own idiosyncratic notion of what the English and Englishness were all about, observed through my personal telescope, growing up north of the border. I saw Orton's What the Butler Saw at the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow in 1976: and what an eye-opener that was at the age of 16. It's a symbol of how times have changed that Joe Orton would have a public spot in his home town named after him. Good for Leicester!

Now, look at these ladies in the photo below. I don't remember there being twin dragons in the story of St George! And doesn't it change the tone a little for the dragon(s) to be female? Didn't St George rescue a damsel in distress from the dragon?

It's a bright and happy occasion today, full of imaginative ways for the kids to find out more about the country's Patron Saint and appreciate the myths, legends, true stories and tall tales that breathe life into what it means to be English - in the past, in the present and in the future. And after all the protests I make for the Scottish side of Marry and Grace's  heritage, they were born here and their mum's English. Oh, hang on - she's half Welsh ... does that mean that they should be shouting for the dragon too? Maybe even just a little bit?