Why Borders Are Necessary To Help Define Individual Identity

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]A lot of the people I spoke to who live in these borders um kind of made me think about borders in a different way.

[00:00:05]You know um borders are kind of inevitable I suppose because we kind of do need them uh culturally I suppose and in terms of identity to define ourselves you know it's kind of almost tribal in a way I guess um you kind of need that other group on the other side of you know the valley or or now this this this fence or whatever to to kind of actually realize your own culture and your own identity. Now, nationalities are often strongest felt on the border, where people define themselves as different to their neighbors. In the British Isles, for example, these boundaries don't only divide countries, but dialects, flags, politics, and identity as well. In his new book, Along the Borders in search of what divides and unites the British Isles, the travel writer Richard Colllet details his long journey through hundreds of miles of Britain's borderlands, exploring the UK's dividing lines and how these can be bridged to bring us together. And Richard joins me now. Hello, Richard.

[00:00:55]>> Hello, Hugo. How are you?

[00:00:56]>> I'm good. Thanks for being with us. You describe yourself as a border addict.

[00:00:59]What fascinates you about borders?

[00:01:01]>> Um, well, to put it simply, I mean, borders define so much of the world around us that I just I just find them to be incredibly interesting places. You know, uh, without borders, we wouldn't have, I suppose, the nationalities that we define ourselves by. You wouldn't have different cultures that sort of, uh, evolve on opposing sides of these borders. Um, and you also wouldn't have these these sort of uh transitional cultures, I suppose you call them, that sort of meet in the middle as well. Um, where you get these different nationalities and cultures that kind of merge together in a way uh to create something new.

[00:01:36]>> So, look, you are by trade you're a travel writer like I said, but would you describe this as a travel book?

[00:01:41]>> Um, I would say it started out as a travel book. As as a travel journalist, I often sort of find myself on the edges of places, I suppose you'd say. um I kind of find myself in these these kind of borderlands, you know, and originally I imagined my first travel book would be about some sort of distant, you know, far-flung destination. Um but then when I sort of started looking around at the UK's borders, um I sort of found that you have this this same situation that you find in say I don't know like Turkey where I I traveled recently where I was uh visiting the Kurdish lands where you have independence movement and and separatists. um you kind of have this actually here in in you know in Scotland and Wales as well in a way. Um so what kind of started out as this sort of this travel journey where I was you know I I in the book I do sort of hike and road trip and uh take buses and fies and all the elements of a travel uh well a travel narrative are in the book. Um but then it sort of evolved into this this larger sort of piece that looks at the the politics and the culture and the history as well. So it's a real sort of mix of of travel writing that's sort of interspersed of all all of these different elements.

[00:02:48]>> So look I mean when it comes to the UK people will immediately think of the the obvious borders the Scotland England border the England Wales border and so on. I guess even the the sort of the Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland border but you begin the book by looking at Cornwall and the border between Cornwall and Devon. Uh what interested you about that?

[00:03:05]>> Um quite simply uh during the lockdowns I ended up in Devon. Um it's not actually a place I knew very well at the time. I'm from well I was born in Scotland originally um to English parents and grew up in the home counties. Um but then I kind of found myself locked down accidentally um in Devon which obviously neighbors Cornwall. Um my partner is half Cornish and during the kind of pandemics we were sort of rooting through her sort of Cornish heritage and I started to to sort of realize that Cornwall this count well what I believe was just another English county uh had this this great and very long ancient history really um that as an English person I I actually knew very little about. I'd always seen Cornwall as this, you know, holiday destination with some lovely beaches.

[00:03:52]Um, perhaps they put the jam and the cream on their scon the wrong way round.

[00:03:56]Um, but I didn't really know their sort of, you know, their great lineage stretching back to the the sort of the well the first the first Britons, the ancient Britain that have lived on these islands. And that really started getting me interested in this sort of separate Cornish history or how it was separate to sort of English history. Um, and then I sort of started realizing that the river Tamar, which is the uh sort of the first border I I sort of tackle in the book, it's this sort of 61 mile long waterway which kind of very naturally divides Devon from Cornwall. Um, was actually seen by many people in Cornwall as almost like a national frontier, like an international border with the sort of strength that, you know, the Scots will see the uh the Anglo Scottish border.

[00:04:37]Um, and I think the fascination was a that I knew nothing about this and b that this this border uh was actually you know over a thousand years old. It was set in you know the 10th century AD.

[00:04:47]Um and I felt like as as you know this is my home country. This is this is Britain. I should really know a lot more about this than I did at the time.

[00:04:55]>> Do you think the pandemic changed our understanding of borders or reminded us about borders? I mean that's obviously true when it comes to crossing sort of national borders but I guess even even at home the fact that we moved so much less the fact that we were all sort of so much more rooted in our areas the fact that you know Scotland had different rules to England and so on.

[00:05:12]>> Definitely. I mean that was to be honest with you one of the inspirations for the book at the time um was the fact that I mean down in Devon for example when we were in a in a different tier to Cornwall >> um I suppose it became almost illegal to cross this you know this thousand-y old frontier. um in Wales as well. I know the problems there with the uh you know the Welsh government devolution and the Senate um were sort of imposing their own their own rules on Wales and um that threw it very much out of kilter in a lot of these border towns. There's a place called uh Clanny Man if I pronounced that correctly. Um where the border the English Welsh border goes almost exactly down the middle of the high street. Um and this this you know this modern border still follows the route of offers dyke which is you know over a thousand years old as well set by a you know an old English king to divide you know the Anglo-Saxons from the Welsh and you know for the first time in a few centuries during co this this old ancient British border was actually becoming you know well a hard border a strong border almost like an international border >> for the for the book as well you traveled the 300 mile length of the Irish border and I'm I'm interested do you find that that there are people who are on one side or the other side or is everybody is everybody just a border person?

[00:06:23]>> Um it really it depended largely speaking I would say that the majority of people I spoke to along the sort of Irish border who were sort of immediately on the border you know six five or six miles either side of it. Um the majority people I spoke to sort of identified first I suppose as a borderer. um they sort of saw their identity as as almost you know feeding off this sort of crossber nature. Um and then only sort of secondly would they either sort of identify as a unionist or a republican perhaps. Um but also in the in the borders I think because they're sort of so close to this sort of dividing line which for a very long time during the troubles of course was was again sort of a hard border that was very controlled with with checkpoints and customs posts. um they very much found themselves, you know, not wanting this border to ever sort of reappear again because they didn't want to lose those crossber connections because they knew how sort of valuable they were.

[00:07:18]>> I mean, what how do you see borders in the UK changing perhaps in our in our lifetime? You know, the situation with Ireland could change, the situation with Scotland could could certainly change.

[00:07:26]Will that will that affect more than I mean will that will that affect more than just our identity or is it all about identity?

[00:07:33]Um I mean identity I think is very big has a big role to play in it. I think on a on a practical level and and again I I see myself as as sort of British first.

[00:07:42]So I really don't want the United Kingdom to fragment and this book was very much sort of finding a way to sort of you know uh promote crossber ties rather than building these borders higher. But sort of in the ultimate sort of you know doomsday scenario if you want to call it that if Scotland was to become independent you very much do have a chance of the borders that we saw during the pandemic uh that became these sort of harder borders you know having this resurgence especially if I'm not sure if it would happen if Scotland was to you know become independent and join the European Union for example you'd then have not just international border but a border with the EU which would bring in all sorts of you know different passport checks and customs controls that I suppose we're we're just not used to sort of uh having in in in the British Isles.

[00:08:27]>> There are those, I suppose, who are hostile to the whole to the notion of borders, not just in terms of how they sort of prevent people from moving, but because they by definition provoke promote division, stop people from thinking of themselves as part of, you know, a greater whole with more in common than that which divides them and so on. Is there a way that we can in a kind of I guess in a kind of progressive way still venerate the idea of borders, venerate the idea of difference, whether it's county difference or national difference?

[00:08:52]>> Yeah. Well, I mean, when I first sort of set out to write this book, um, and you know, as a travel writer who's crossed basically crosses borders for a living, I I always, um, on the side of of having less borders originally anyway, but um, a lot of the people I spoke to who live in these borders um, kind of made me think about borders in a different way, you know. Um, borders are kind of inevitable, I suppose, because we kind of do need them uh, culturally, I suppose, and in terms of identity to define ourselves. you know, it's kind of almost tribal in a way, I guess. Um, you kind of need that other group on the other side of, you know, the valley or or now this this this fence or whatever to to kind of actually realize your own culture and your own identity. Um, so in that respect, I don't think we can ever truly sort of do away with borders. Um but I think the way the United Kingdom has sort of existed and and in a way the way the European European Union exists now um they've been able to sort of do away with the the sort of the hard border aspects and create these softer borders um that you do have or have had for the last you know what few hundred years in the UK between Scotland and and England and that does allow you to sort of be proud of your own sort of regional identity whether that's you know which county you're from if you're from Devon or from Somerset and you have this this rivalry. Um but I I don't think we need the sort of you know more barb wire and watchtowers so to speak or customs controls and inspections. Um I think we can sort of you know have these nominal lines on the map I suppose you would call them that >> allow us to sort of take the best of our of our culture and and you know have these friendly riv rivalries rather than uh being truly in opposition to each other.

[00:10:37]>> Such a fascinating journey and such a fascinating way of thinking as well.

[00:10:39]Richard Collet, thank you very much indeed. The book is Along the Borders: In Search of What Divides and Unites the British Isles, and it is available to order at the Times Bookshop where Times Plus members can get a 20% discount.

[00:10:49]Just visit timesbookshop.co.uk.