From the Editor…

Best of British is the UK’s premier nostalgia magazine. Published since 1993, Best of British magazine is packed with stories and pictures guaranteed to bring the memories flooding back. Offering page after page of timeless reading, Best of British covers every aspect of life from the 1930s all the way through to today, recording the way it once was and demonstrating what makes Britain so special.

At the heart of the magazine is our Yesterday Remembered section, where we explore reader’s own recollections and memories of British life gone by. Add to this dedicated stories on everything from vintage transport to great Britons, from Christmas traditions to great days out, and you have the perfect mix. Other regulars include reader favourites such as Treasures in the Attic, Baking with Mrs Simkins, 1940s Post, Postcard from… and of course our Puzzle Page and Crossword.

We hope you enjoy reading our magazine as much as we love compiling it. In the meantime here is this month’s letter from our Editor, Chris Peachment…

THERE WAS A MAN

Welcome dear reader to our 1940s issue, in which we detail all the forthcoming re-enactment events which you all seem to enjoy for your diary.

We have covered Winston Churchill well enough in the past and I feel the same reverence for the man that most of our readers do.

His portrayal as a petulant young war-monger in 37 Days, the BBC’s recent three part drama on the last 37 days of diplomacy leading up to WWI, may well have been accurate.

But it was our good fortune that he was Prime Minister at the right moment in our history, and it was the good fortune of the rest of the free world as well. In fact if there was ever evidence of divine providence at work, that must surely be one instance.

He was the greatest actor on the world stage in history. And no one since has come remotely close to claiming that title.

If you survey the powerful today, I doubt they ever will. But there was one side to his life which I had never considered before, and in the light of our feature by Rebecca MacWattie on Winston and his wife Clementine, I find myself even more admiring of the man.

There has never been so powerful a leader whose private life was untainted by scandal. Think of JFK or Mao, and how they used the scores of women who were attracted by power.

At a time when he could claim to be the most powerful man in the free world, Winston’s devotion to his wife and family was unswerving. At the moment, the world leaders to the east are vicious and corrupt. In the west, they are clenched and dull.

We could do with another leader who could win us a war, be an amateur bricklayer and painter, breed butterflies and win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

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