David Low's courageous visualisation of British conservatism and stupidity at the outbreak of war, here the magnificent Colonel Blimp and his Blimpish bulldog, in the New Statesman and Nation pamphlet, THIS ENGLAND, December 1939. The cuttings that reveal the national temper were selected by V.S.Pritchett, and purported to reveal the eccentricity of the race, and, by implication the banality of the Establishment's culture.

PRUDENCE."I always type my love letters in triplicate. One copy goes to the original addressee, the second into my private file and the third to my solicitor. This system has saved me endless embarassment and expense." Letter to the Daily Mail. How Blimp would have approved. Michael Powell made a film of the Life and Loves of the Colonel.

The Little Less by Guy Reed and Fougasse,.Methuen London 1938
A thinner Bull demanded by the deprivations of Total War.


A contrary vision from the German Fascist press; cartoon by "lill" published in Das Schwarze Korps, date unknown, c1937.

By Chris Mullen
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