When Dieter Rams was head of design for Braun, the famous German electronics factory, in the 60s, he aimed to give his products anonymity, comparing Braun's food-mixers and shavers to discreet, efficient, English butlers.
In achieving this extraordinarily difficult compromise, Wren had not just tested his genius to the limits, but realised the most monumentally discreet of all English compromises.
Of the remainder in Britain, half went to foreign employers.Hollywood films and the success of television shows like "Downton Abbey" that depict butlers as discreet, resourceful and quintessentially English have helped.
He grew up speaking English (he began discreet Spanish lessons as mayor).
Kazuo Ishiguro may have been born in Nagasaki, but the discreet and subtle complexity of English (and Japanese) life is his subject.
Pears prefaces each song with a spoken précis in English, and a discreet lighting plot reflects mood changes as the cycle proceeds to its grim conclusion.
That neither any longer applies is cause for English regret, and, perhaps, discreet Australian relief.
Over all, Mahón had the character of a discreet British town, the result of the English occupation of the island during the 18th century.
Every time Figueroa tweeted about the loss of power, Con Edison became "Coño Edisono," and coño is slang for an English word that the more discreet among us had a bit of trouble with earlier this year.
In 1959, the year of Chandler's death, his great English admirer Ian Fleming permitted himself a discreet nod of homage.
