This England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This England is a quarterly magazine, published in spring, summer, autumn and winter, "for all those who love England's green and pleasant land". It has a large readership among expatriates, many of whom are elderly, and concentrates on the values and customs of England -- especially rural and small-town England -- in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. The magazine started in 1967 with the slogan "As Refreshing as a Cup of Tea!"; it is still edited by its founder, Lincolnshire-born Roy Faiers, and is based in Cheltenham. This England boasts a circulation of 150,000 [1].
The magazine maintains a strongly anti-European stance and is seen by some as arch-conservative and reactionary. It features articles against metrication, the European Union, multiculturalism and other issues which the readership may consider threats to English identity. In the 1990s, it lent its support to New Britain, a very small right-wing political group, which it praised as "the organisation which is campaigning for a complete revival of our country". The Autumn 1994 edition featured an advert for "Merrie England 2000", a publication by Colin Jordan.
In his 1998 book, The English: A Portrait of a People, Jeremy Paxman remarked that the magazine's greatest enemy was "the march of time", remarking that not one article in the magazine looks forward, although this is not always true.
As well as selling recordings of music from the 1940s, it also offers traditional navy blue British passport covers for those who dislike the current European version, plus little British flags to "replace" the European flag which exists on the driving licence and the disabled "blue badge".
The readers' letters in its "Post Box" section often reminisce about bygone days and are critical of various changes in England in the past fifty years, which they consider to be unwelcome, while the "Don't Let Europe Rule Britannia" section is devoted to its campaign against the EU. One recurring complaint in the letters section concerns the supposed preferential treatment given by British immigration authorities to British citizens of African and Asian origin, and to EU nationals like the French and the Germans, over their "kith and kin" (i.e. Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders), when arriving in the "Mother Country" from what it still calls the "British Commonwealth".
This England has a sister publication, Evergreen, which features less political content and concentrates more on daily life, literature, culture, food, music and the preservation of village life. Another publication from the same stable, Beautiful Britain, launched in 2006. This focuses on pictures of Britain and is perhaps aimed at a younger audience.
