13th August 2017

Immigrants....Years ago we were used to Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants. In France we'd read about EU immigration but not experienced it. Back in the UK the builders sent several workers to our new house. Couldn't quite place the first one's accent. Russian? No. Polish? No. Bulgarian! And when another builder came round, he sounded a bit similar. You must be Bulgarian, I said. No. Albanian! Oh the changes here post-war. From '48 to '62 the UK saw a wave of immigrants from Britain's imperial family. 500,000 arrived, mainly from the Caribbean, India and Pakistan. In Mirpur you earned 50p per week, in Wolverhampton £33. A no-brainer. Everyone thought they were here just temporarily, but it eventually turned the UK multicultural. And now the latest EU wave. After 2004 it was impossible for the government to control numbers, so Brexit was born. My conclusion? We must all learn how to deal with neighbours of a different culture.
...Hence the new published edition of my non-fiction book Pensioners in Paradis: French Notes from a Broad. How did Him indoors cope with dealing with a different culture? And how did the French cope with him? Now available for pre-order: click on the image on the right.