United Kingdom This article is about the

United Kingdom

This article is about the sovereign state. For the island, see Great Britain. For other uses, see United Kingdom (disambiguation) and UK (disambiguation). The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain (/ˈbrɪ. tən/), is asovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain (a term sometimes loosely applied to the whole state), the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another state: the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea in the east, the English Channel in the south and the Irish Sea in the west.

The UK's form of government is a constitutional monarchywith a parliamentary system and its capital city is London. The current British monarch—since 6 February 1952—is Queen Elizabeth II The United Kingdom consists of four countries: England

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland

The United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and eighth -largest by purchasing power parity. It was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19 th and early 20 th centuries. The UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a recognised nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth in the world. The capital — the city of London, one of the largest cities of Europe and the major world financial and economic center. State language — English.

Culture of Great Britain Despite extensive and successful history, the British industry is often characterized by disputes on existence of her identity and the American and European influence. Many British movies сопродюсируются together with the American producers, in them often are shot the American actors on an equal basis with British, and the British actors often act in Hollywood. Many successful Hollywood movies are based on the British people, literature or events, as, for example, Titanic, the Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean Sea.

Literature of Great Britain The term the British literature belongs both to the Great Britain, and to the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and also literature of England, Wales and Scotland before their association. The bulk of the British literature is written in English. In 2005 in Great Britain about 260 000 books were published, and in 2006 the country was the leader by number of published names in the world.

Music of Great Britain Various musical styles are popular in Great Britain, beginning from a local folk music of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland finishing the Heavy-metal. Among classical composers of Great Britain and its predecessors there are such persons as William Byord, Henry Pyorsell, Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, Arthur Sullivan (the most known on the work with the librettist William Gilbert), Ralf Voan-Williams and Benjamin Britten, the pioneer of the modern British opera. Peter Maxwell Davies is one of the most outstanding live composers and is the present Master of royal music. Great Britain also the homeland of the Symphonic orchestra of the BBC recognized around the world. Among known British conductors there are such names as Simon Rettl, John Barbirolli and Malkolm Sardzhent. Noticeable film composers are John Barry, Clint Mansell, Mike Oldfild, John Powell, Craig Armstrong, David Arnold, John Murphy and Harry Gregson-Williams. George Frederick Handel though was born in Germany, there were the naturalized British citizen, and his some works, including the Messiah, are written in English. Andrew Lloyd Webber achieved considerable world success and is the author of music for musicals, and his works for many years dominated in London Vest-Ende and were often used on the Broadway in New York.

Fine arts The history of the British art is an integral part of history of the European art. Among known British artists it is possible to mention: William Blake, John Constable, Samuel Palmer and William Turner's romantist; portraitists Joshua Reynolds and Lucian Freud; landscape writer Thomas Gainsborough; pioneer of movement of arts and crafts William Morris; Francis Bacon's figurativist; representatives of pop art Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and David Hockney; duet Gilbert and George; abstract artist Howard Hodzhkin; sculptors Anthony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Henry Moore. In the late eighties and the 1990 th Gallery of Saatchi in London helped to draw attention to group of multi-genre artists who then became known as Young British artists: Demyen Hirst, Chris Ofili, Rachael Uaytred, Traci Emin, Mark Wallinger, Sam Taylor -Wood and Brothers Chapman.

Sports in Great Britain Many popular sports among which soccer, регбилиг, rugby-15, rowing, boxing, badminton, cricket, tennis, darts and golf, appeared and were developed in Great Britain and the countries by it preceding. In the majority of competitions separate teams play for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, including at the Commonwealth Games. However there also cases when the uniform team plays for Great Britain, including the Olympic Games where it is presented to the uniform national team. London was a venue of the Olympic Games in 1908 and 1948, and in 2012 became the first city hosting the Olympic Games three times.

Great Britain - the country where art prospers. It is right that the artist, the writer or the philosopher aren't appreciated by English public as they are appreciated, for example, in France. Nevertheless today's London became the house for the most important, new and progressive artists, designers and writers of the world. Sales volumes of books and tickets for theatrical representations and concerts are incredibly great. Great Britain lets out to 50 thousand new books a year and about a quarter more of this number is made by new circulations of classical editions. The passion to classical music developed in time of World War II and continues to grow to this day so even the most small town has the own musical society executing Bach or Handel. The London theater is considered one of the best in Europe. In the province of one hundred small theaters attract a large number of the audience.

Despite continuous changes in society, British keep a set of special traditions. In summertime in the field at the village it is possible to see game in cricket in the heat. It is very slow and static game which can seem boring for the observer, but actually it is full various cunnings and features. In rural pubs inhabitants often play darts, is more rare - in checkers or chess.

The British society, though concerned about doubts and uncertainty, and constantly compelled to solve key social problems, definitely isn't in decline, and doesn't die away at all. Nevertheless, it is deeply concerned and seriously discusses many traditional foundations of society. In British there is something unpredictable, inexplicable. From where this nation had forces to sink the Spanish armada? Definitely not thanks to huge quantities of economic resources or the disciplined society. Perhaps, in souls of these people united by a common goal, there is something what not in power to understand to sociologists. British - the remarkable people, and their whims, social "distance" and left-side movement are an integral part of our world. Without Great Britain the world would become poorer.