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…

The Problem with The Kaiser

Welcome dear reader to our July issue, and even as I write this the sun is battling its way through the smog and pollen clouds that reduce Brits to wheezing invalids in the summer.

One of the many diversions which the English organise for themselves to while away a hot afternoon is the Cowes regatta.

I went one year, and had one yachting man tell me an old joke: the way to make a small fortune in yacht racing is to start with a large fortune.

Janet Toms, our Isle of Wight correspondent, has written on Cowes this month, and has concentrated on what the Kaiser did there before WWI.

And the short version is that he annoyed everyone. He arrived with a vast retinue, which used to crowd out the hotels.

Then he would strut about the place in one of his many uniforms with rows and rows of medals, and disturb the peace with a huge brass band which played German marching songs to everyone’s irritation.

Why he wasn’t hung after WW1 is a mystery.

I have read many books which tried to explain the outbreak of WWI, whose 100th anniversary is next month, and have been left none the wiser about the tortuous diplomatic reasons.

One recent TV programme on the BBC went so far as to suggest that a missed phone call to the French ambassador was the chief reason.

But having studied the Kaiser, I suspect this arrogant buffoon was as much to blame as anyone.

And the formation of his weak and petulant character was partly done by our own Queen Victoria, who used to dote upon her favourite grandson, Wilhelm, and grant him his every wish.

So Queen Victoria was responsible for WWI.

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