Excerpt from the book 40 Humourous British Traditions. Is British humour your cup of tea? Britain has many well documented, yet strange traditions. This book describes 40 more traditions in a similar vein, all of which are less well known. Get ready for interesting characters, thought-provoking ideas, and strange events – all of which are fiction!

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Contestants can use any sharp implement to carve, just so long as the item isn’t used in a threatening manner towards another contestant or their artistic creation.

In modern times, Stanley Jardine has won the most events at the Cheese Carving contest with 23 victories between 1956 and 2007. Stanley started carving Wensleydale cheese and then broadened his horizons to include Lancashire and Cheshire cheese too. His chosen implement was a six-inch long knife with a sharp pointed end used for defining feathers and fur. Jardine explained his success as follows: “you have to learn on the crumbly cheeses so that your techneek is honed to perfection as quickly as possible – there’s nowt worse than carving summat bootiful and then it crumbles to bits with one careless cut at t’end. Learning on t’Wensley helps the concentration too, so that by time tha starts on them southern cheeses such as Lanky Sher then everything’s so much easier.”