NAPOLEON BONAPARTE thought he was disparaging Britain when he called this country ‘a nation of shopkeepers’. What a dilettante. This country has long inflicted much worse on herself: her people call her Blighty (compare this with the habit of the Italians, who refer to their nation as Il Bel Paese, The Beautiful Country) and her capital is the Big Smoke (Paris’s nickname is The City of Light; Rome’s is The Eternal City). The British are unrivalled champions of self-abasement, but our New Year’s resolution in testing times is to put the Great back into Britain and celebrate what makes this country a place we are proud to call home.

1 Understatement

No one in Britain has a huge problem: we are invariably ‘in a bit of a pickle’. We are only ever ‘a little put out’, even when we are completely gutted, but if we are truly pleased with something, we say ‘it’s not too bad’. Alexander Fleming dismissed his discovery of penicillin, which has saved an estimated 200 million lives, with: ‘One sometimes finds what one is not looking for.’ When 650 men of the Gloucester-shire Regiment faced off tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers during the Korean war, Brig Thomas Brodie told his American allies by radio that things were ‘a bit sticky’ (the Americans took him at face value and told him to hold the position; only 39 men survived).

2 Endearing animal characters

‘Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.’ A few decades later, ‘Mr and Mrs Brown first met Paddington on a railway platform’ and, in between, A. A. Milne filled a forest with a philosophising bear and his pig, kangaroo and donkey friends.

3 Cracking the Enigma code

A superb reminder that wars can be won by brains, as much as by brawn. Bletchley Park’s codebreakers saved countless lives during the Second World War and, in the process, also gave the world its first modern computer: the Colossus.

4 English sparkling wine

Once, people thought it was a fool’s errand. Then it fooled blind-tasting sommeliers into thinking it was Champagne.

5 The name’s Bond, James Bond

Ever since he ‘shifted unobtrusively away from the roulette he had been playing’ in Casino Royale in 1953, Ian Fleming’s 007 has made spycraft glamorous, travel elegant and martinis popular. Updated by Daniel Craig’s interpretation, the stylish spy is now getting ready for a new incarnation and guaranteed success for at least another seven decades.

6 Saved for the nation: heritage buildings

The West Sussex rival to Versailles that nurtured Turner’s talent (Petworth House); Sir Walter Scott’s turreted Borders manor