One interesting thing about Christmas in Britain is how big of a deal it is to have "The Christmas Number One", that means to have the top spot on the UK Charts the week of Christmas. Bookies even take bets on who will be the Christmas number one, it is just a massive deal here. There is really no … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the North: The Christmas Number One – British Christmas Number 1
December 16, 2009 By 69 Comments
Bright Young Things: The Making of Bruno Hat
December 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Abstracts for Distracted Aristocrats Whiskey flowed and banter flew on the evening of July 23, 1929, as England's young and chic descended on a gray-brick Westminster mansion abutting narrow Buckingham Street. Approach to Hat read the catalogue handed out at the door. Inside, rooms were hung … [Read more...]
Anglophile Reviews: Fawlty Towers Remastered DVD Set
November 2, 2009 By 1 Comment
I've made it quite known that my favorite British Comedy of all time is Yes, Minister. However, there is a new contender in the runner: Fawlty Towers. I was provided a copy of the new Remastered DVD Box set to review by the kind folks at the BBC and took to watching it right away. My wife and I got … [Read more...]
Fawlty Towers has been Remastered for its 30th Anniversary
October 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Classic British TV comedy, Fawlty Towers has been remastered and released on DVD for it's 30th anniversary. From the BBC Blurb this past week: Join the BBC in celebrating the 30th anniversary of John Cleese's (Monty Python's Flying Circus, A Fish Called Wanda) legendary TV series, Fawlty Towers! … [Read more...]
15 Ways to Not Look and Act Like an Idiot American in Britain
October 6, 2009 By 234 Comments
One of the most popular posts on this site is a post I did a few months ago about my Top 10 London Traditions. It's not a post that I thought would have any legs on the social media networks - it was mostly a vanity post of me sharing what I like to do when I go to London. But then some people … [Read more...]
Happy 40th Birthday Monty Python!
October 5, 2009 By 1 Comment
Today marks a momentous day - the 40th birthday of iconic British Comedy troupe, Monty Python. To mark the day - fellow Anglophile blogger Brit Fancy has kindly written us a fabulous post talking all about what makes Monty Python great. Check out her excellent Anglophile blog here. Today marks … [Read more...]
Talking Telly: Random TV Nuggets From Dragon*Con
September 14, 2009 By 4 Comments
Boy, there's nothing like writing a first column to give me writer's block. There is so much about British TV to talk about that it's hard to nail down stuff like the ultimate show or what show you should never, ever watch (that's Big Brother). So for now I'm going to talk about what me and everyone … [Read more...]
Anglophile in Exile: An Ode to Stephen Fry
August 24, 2009 By 5 Comments
Writer. Actor. Director. Comedian. Television presenter. Game show host. Twitterer extraordinaire. National Treasure. Stephen Fry is all of that and more; a Renaissance Man of our time. A man who's brilliance knows no boundaries. Some even think of him as our modern Oscar Wilde. This … [Read more...]
Humor: What Puts the Great in Great Britain
July 14, 2009 By 2 Comments
I thought this was pretty funny and worth sharing. The major difference between American and the United Kingdom can be seen on it's money. It will be a cold day in hell before Charles Darwin ends up on US currency! … [Read more...]
The A to Z of British Comedy
June 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This comes from the Guardian - it's a quick A to Z of British comedy. It covers some pretty cool stuff and you may learn about something new that's worth watching. From the Article: H is for Harry Enfield, who managed to get his "undercarriage" stuck in his costume seconds before coming onstage in … [Read more...]
What Makes the Quintessential Englishman?
May 7, 2009 By 1 Comment
The Evening Standard (one of my favorite London papers) recently asked the question: What Makes the Quintessential Englishman? It pondered the question because, someone who many consider to be THE Quintessential Englishman - Stephen Fry - denied that he was such, to the horror of the … [Read more...]
Where Would You Go in History?
April 28, 2009 By 1 Comment
If you could travel back in time, what period of history would you choose to go to? A recent post over at Brave New Traveler wrote up a post of the 10 Best Destinations of a historical Time Traveler and England Made the list, specifically London. From the Post: 5. London, 14th … [Read more...]
Anglophile Reviews: Someday My Prince will Come by Jerramy Fine
April 16, 2009 By 2 Comments
This Anglophile Review was written by my lovely wife, Jackie Thomas. Let me first start by saying, this is not the type of book that I would usually read. Jonathan handed it to me and asked me if I would review it for Anglotopia. I am not a huge fan of the “chick-lit†genre, in fact … [Read more...]
Good Blog Post: 27 Banal Observations of a Recent Immigrant
March 21, 2009 By 5 Comments
I came across this excellent blog post across my Twitter feed the other day. Jane Copland is a recent immigrant to the UK and she recently wrote a post about some of her observations about living in the UK (specifically London). Many are spot on and hilarious. So, I thought I'd share the post with … [Read more...]
White House Gift Gate Continues
March 19, 2009 By 1 Comment
I've vented my frustration over the last few weeks over Gordon Brown's treatment at the hands of the Obama administration. And now there's salt to rub into the wound. So, we gave Gordon a DVD set of classic Hollywood movies. Well, it turns out he sat down to watch one the other day and guess … [Read more...]
Dispatches From The North: Red Nose Day
March 18, 2009 By 2 Comments
Photo From Flickr As you may already know, there is a lovely thing in Britain called Comic Relief that culminates with "Red Nose Day" which was this past Friday, March 13th. The people of Britain are encouraged to do "Something Funny for Money" and these things can range from paying a pound … [Read more...]
A Day in the Life of the Famous Abbey Road Crossing
February 19, 2009 By 1 Comment
This really cool video was featured on Boing Boing today and it shows a time lapse picture of all the activity surrounding Abbey Road during the day. There are obviously multitudes of tourist re-enacting the famous Beatles cover, much to the annoyance of drivers trying to get on with their … [Read more...]
Anglophile Review: The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyall
February 17, 2009 By 4 Comments
I'm going to be in the minority amongst my fellow Anglophile bloggers, but I liked The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyall. This book came out late last year and I got it for Christmas from my wife, who suffers through my Anglophilia with an understanding that borders on … [Read more...]
Dispatches From the South: Out and About in Horsham, England
February 12, 2009 By 5 Comments
I live just two blocks away from the town centre, a statement sure to confuse everyone as the Brits don't know what a "Block" is and Americans don't tend to use the term "Town Center" on a routine basis. (For some reason, I can only imagine it being used in a military context: "Captain, the … [Read more...]
Only in Britain: Let’s Build our Own Steam Engine
February 3, 2009 By 1 Comment
Photo of the Peppercorn Tornado from Flickr Filed under the 'Only in Britain' Banner. According to the Times Online recently, a brand new steam engine has had it's final tests and is ready to roll on Britain's mainline rails. What's odd about this is that they simply don't make steam trains … [Read more...]
The Coming Apostrophe Catastrophe
February 2, 2009 By 3 Comments
In the odd news of the week comes an interesting tidbit from the AP newswire that says the English city of Birmingham has unilaterally decided to drop the venerable possessive apostrophe from all it's streets signs. Their reasoning? Apparently, they think the apostrophe is confusing and old … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the South: What’s the Difference?
January 29, 2009 By 2 Comments
When you first arrive in the UK, everything is, quite naturally, different. The early days of your visit are filled with the exciting sounds of unfamiliar accents and the pleasing presence of alien surroundings. Soon, however, these fade into the background hum of daily life, and then the real … [Read more...]
Anglophile Reviews: The Septic’s Companion
January 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The Septic's Companion by Chris Rae is a brilliant little book. The first third of the book is about British culture and answers some pretty interesting questions that the average Anglophile probably has about Britain. The rest of the book is dictionary of British Terms and they're meanings. It's … [Read more...]
Monty Python Sees the Benefits of Social Media
January 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The Monty Python troupe made news a few months ago by releasing a cavalcade of clips for free on YouTube in order to nip piracy in the bud and root out all the bad quality clips. In viewership terms, it was a fantastic move, with the official videos becoming the preferred way to share clips of … [Read more...]
Absolutely Fabulous Coming Across the Pond
January 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Yet another classic British Comedy is being imported to the US. Absolutely Fabulous is being remade by Fox. You know the network with a great track record of successful quality shows. I really don't get why US TV studios continually try to remake a British classics. Why not, I don't know, just air … [Read more...]
Famous Anglophiles: Part 2
January 25, 2009 By 3 Comments
One of the first posts that I wrote for this blog was about Famous Anglophiles. It also happens to be one of the most visited pages on this site. So, after watching the feeds for a few months, I've managed to cobble together another list of Famous Anglophiles. I was surprised at some of the names … [Read more...]
Britain’s Odd Place Names
January 24, 2009 By 1 Comment
There was an article in the New York Times recently about the propensity of the Brits to give geographic locations unintentionally humorous names. The article was filed from the unfortunately named Crapstone, England. A list of Funny British Place names featured in the article: Crapstone Pratts … [Read more...]
Dispatches from the South: British High Culture or Something Like That…
January 22, 2009 By 1 Comment
Here's the scenario: you're fortunate enough to be in Britain over the holidays. Your host tells you there is a traditional Christmas play being performed at the local theatre. And you go. What you find is a play in search of a plot with dialogue delivered at the expense of local, … [Read more...]
London in Lego Form
January 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Growing up, I loved playing with Legos. I loved building contraptions and cool buildings. I still love Legos and my wife has been known to buy me a Lego set for Christmas or my birthday. Well, I'm not the only adult who loved Legos. There are whole communities on the web dedicated to building your … [Read more...]
Anglophile Factoids: Things You Wish You Knew about Britain Before Moving There
January 10, 2009 By 38 Comments
Picture from Ibontxo on Flickr I was browsing some Expat forums recently and came across an interesting thread. It asked the question: What do you wish you knew about Britain before you moved there? There were some pretty interesting nuggets of information I thought I'd share with all of you. I'm … [Read more...]
British Pound Exchange Rate
Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dreams of traveling to the UK whenever we want a reality.
