Voices

I admittedly was standing in a noisy pub called The Font in Manchester on Thursday evening. However, one of my class mates who has only spoken to me a couple of time mis took my accent and asked if I was German.

My accent is an aquired taste. I've been told I sound a bit like:
South London,
Southern England,
Oxford,
New Zealand,
German,
and apparently have something similar to a famous voice, but no one could work out who.

All I know is, I'm certainly Southern England in origin born in Sutton and Carshalton and lived in the Epsom and Ewell area most of my life until recently (last 5 years). I've spent three in Canterbury, Kent and One in West Berkshire now I'm in Manchester.

The rest well I know I can delve into Yorkshire, the Somerset/Devon region, Scottish and South African with a relative amount of ease as long as I have practiced it before hand or have some one next to me with the accent. I tend to mimic if I'm not careful, I do watch myself for this. I can speak to Yorkshire friends or go to York and come true Northern. It is quite scary.

A question was asked of a character in the book I'm reading - "Set In Darkness" by Ian Rankin. They were noted as able to mimic quite easily, they were english by nature but living in Scotland
"...is the Mimic an effect of wanting to fit in to a group, society set or culture?"

The answer for the character I have yet to find, but for me, my voice is just another part of who I am. My voice is always the same to me...so why do I appear to sound like a mix of everyone. I'm not generic and friends who I've known for a long time say I sound most like that of Southern England, so why do I have such a mixed reaction from northern quarters of England and over seas people?