FEBRUARY 2019
WELCOME
In 1972 the Ugandan leader Idi Amin expelled the country’s Asian population. Given just three months to leave, and allowed to take only a small amount of money, almost 30,000 Ugandan Asians made their way to Britain to begin a new life. The immigrants encountered hostility and racism, but at the same time many Britons f locked to their aid, providing food and shelter and even lessons in how to take tea. On page 50 of this month’s issue, Becky Taylor revisits the events of almost half a century ago and reveals how the Ugandan Asians went on to become one of Britain’s immigration ‘success stories’.
New arrivals of a far less peaceable kind are the subject of this month’s cover feature, which takes us back to the turn of the second millennium. On page 20 Laura Ashe describes the Viking invasions of the 10th and 11th centuries through the eyes of the horri ed AngloSaxon bishop Wulfstan.
Of course, not all visitors to Britain were here to stay, but even the views of tourists can tell us much about past societies. In the early Victorian era, a distinguished American, Elizur Wright, made a lengthy visit to Britain and recorded his experiences of the society, politics and landscape he encountered. On page 30, Richard Sugg shares some insights from this 19th-century Bill Bryson, offering an outsider’s view on everything from the Duke of Wellington to cat food.
I hope you enjoy the issue.
Rob Attar Editor
THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS
I M A G E S
G E T T Y
:
I T S
C O V E R C R E D
I N O T T
: J E N
PA G E
I S
T H
Suzannah Lipscomb I read over 10,000 pages of o en illegible French manuscripts to discover more than 1,200 moral cases that give new insight into the lives of ordinary women living in the 16th century. P Suzannah looks into the lives of the female residents of Reformation France on page 36
Becky Taylor I’ve spent the last few years exploring Britain’s ‘tradition of welcome’ of refugees, looking at exactly how German Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Ugandan Asians and Vietnamese were received when they sought refuge here. P Becky tells the story of the Ugandan Asians who fled to Britain in the early 1970s on page 50
Richard Sugg I was researching the phrase ‘The Great Unwashed’ for my new book, Talking Dirty: The History of Disgust, when I stumbled upon the letters written from Britain by the extraordinary American Elizur Wright. Like history itself, Wright’s life was a great adventure. P Richard describes an American’s verdict on Victorian Britain on page 30
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