The singer Édith Piaf famously, and throatily, regretted nothing about anything. But the poet John Betjeman wished that he’d had more sex. And the economist John Maynard Keynes that he’d drunk more champagne. Me? I regret two things much more important than recreational sex or champagne. (more…)
Tag: England
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1,418 words
Cricket. Not as homely as “mom and apple pie,” but, to the Englishman, just as evocative of home. If American readers don’t know the game, I won’t attempt to explain more than to say it’s the one that is played by what look like hospital interns using bookshelves as bats who attempt to swat a baseball-sized, rock-hard, red leather ball hurled by a bowler (more…)
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Editor’s note: This is a transcript of Millennial Woes’ speech at the 2017 London Forum. We would like to thank Hyacinth Bouquet for this transcript. (more…)
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When I first said I wanted to be a comedian, everyone laughed. Well, they’re not laughing now.
— Bob Monkhouse
If you and your friends were to have a séance, and you channeled the spirit of George Orwell, the greatest Englishman never to appear on a banknote would use the glass to tap out the following: stop quoting 1984. (more…)
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7,971 words
Twentieth Century Studios is threatening to release a remake of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile (1937). And if Kenneth Branaugh’s previous outing as the Hercule Poirot character in 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express was anything to go by, best to avoid it. (more…)
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2,768 words
It is no secret to those of us from the UK who have not been vaccinated against reality that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is politically biased. Despite an apparent failsafe in its charter requiring it to stay neutral, it is about as non-partisan as a rabid sports fan bellowing in support of his team. (more…)
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3,216 words
Meghan Markle is not the first conniving, social climbing, American divorcee to imperil the British Monarchy. Before her, there was Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. And, as problematic as she was, Wallis had a hell of a lot more going for her. Born Bessie Wallis Warfield in Baltimore in 1896, Wallis was not pretty (one biographer has even speculated that she was a hermaphrodite). (more…)
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1,837 words
Not too long ago I got an app for my streaming service that features British TV shows, which led to me developing an obsession with reality shows featuring poverty-stricken Englishmen and their troubles.
Naturally, I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of voyeurism and judging. (more…)
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John Seymour
Retrieved From the Future
London: New European Publications, 1996John Seymour’s Retrieved From the Future depicts a Britain when the oil runs out, caused by the CRASH, when Shiites take over the Middle East and promptly destroy all its oil wells. (more…)
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2,706 words
In many ways, America and Britain’s sociopolitical circumstances parallel those of the reigns of King John, King Henry III, and King Edward I, a period of 108 years. [1]
Jewish financial swindles and cultural corruption plagued England, as well as involvement in foreign quagmire wars in France, Sicily, and the Levant. Foreign advisors were also influencing the King. (more…)
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Colin Jordan
Merrie England 2,000
Sandycroft Publications: 1993In earlier times, there was much speculative fiction about conditions around the turn of the millennium. (We’re still waiting for those hovercars, dammit. . .) Other literature focuses more on changes in society than imaginative technology. (more…)
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1,881 words
Since the last US presidential election, my life has been a tangled web of travels and adventures. I was fortunate enough to experience Trump’s historic election night in 2016 while living in a small town in Texas. This year, I spent the election night in a small British town near Tamworth Castle. Like everyone else, I stayed up late both nights (more…)
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5,894 words
No author would be able to get away with writing such a story in a novel, it was so fantastic. Providence and Destiny are real. In 2012, a group of amateur enthusiasts and archaeologists traveled to Leicestershire (located in the heart of England), site of the 1485 Battle of Bosworth Field. They were on a quixotic mission: to find the remains of Richard III, England’s most controversial king, in the vast area surrounding the old Grey Friars Church — and on a shoestring budget. (more…)