Beppe Severgnini reminisced in early January about what he and millions of Continental Europeans have cherished about the United Kingdom.

Above all, we were mesmerized by that quaint country, where the citizens had pounds and not kilograms, restaurants served meat stew and mashed potatoes, families enjoyed donkey rides on the beach in the rain…

Because we feel the difference in atmosphere, physical and moral. “The curious, damp, blunt, good-humored, happy-go-lucky, old-established, slow-seeming formlessness of everything,” was the way the author John Galsworthy put it in 1917.

… The home of the ideas was always London: The best writing, the best films, the best music, the best soccer, the best design, arguably the best art and some of the smartest young people were there. Even the best food, lately, as people from Europe — and beyond — brought their skills and traditions.

(Beppe Severgnini, “What Now for Europeans Who Love Britain?” NYTimes, 1-6-20)

(c) 2020 JMN