If one lives long enough he will encounter great leaders. Most people believe that leaders are born and few believe that they themselves can become any type of leader.
I am now a believer that the old axiom, “leaders are born not made” is false.

Leadership is not easy but can be learned. Leadership is demanding and can be frustrating. However, leadership is noble and rewarding. Therefore, it is important not to take your leadership role with a cavalier attitude.

There are nine facts about leadership that we all can aspire to have. I have found that these characteristics to be evident in the most ordinary to the most extraordinary leaders of our time. People like Gandhi, Martin L King and Mother Teresa all possess these nine qualities.

You do not need some extreme circumstance to propel you into a leadership role. Nevertheless, for anyone to become a great leader you must have a love of people, and a desire to improve the lives of people you encounter.

For example, Mother Teresa’s love for the people who lived in the slums of India inspired her to spend sixty years feeding and clothing the poor. Her love propelled her into a leadership role where Presidents, dignitaries and India’s populace were willing to set in congested rooms just to hear what she has to say.

The second and third characteristics of leadership will challenge the prevailing sentiment and have an emphasis on learning. Martin L. King knew that the nation could not keep treating a segment of the population differently than the rest.

Martin L King use his Scholarly and great oratory by invoking these words from our Constitution: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”….Martin L King challenged the status quo of the United States in 1960 for the betterment of society.

To be a leader you must be willing to challenge the status quo and continue to educate oneself.

The fourth and Fifth characteristics are a driven commitment and having a vision beyond present circumstances. Gandhi knew the Indian people must be self-reliant if they were going to survive in the future. Gandhi’s commitment to the Indian people that they will one day be independent of England’s monarch was a vision few Indian people believed or felt possible.

However, Gandhi’s forward thinking, commitment and self-sacrifice are the reasons India is independent of English colonial rule.

The seventh and eight truths have to do with the people around you. “Most people will follow a leader who can clearly articulate their WHY” Starts With The WHY (Simon Sinek) in life. Most can tell you what they do and how they do it but very few can tell you “WHY” they do what they do.

Let us go back to the three leaders I mentioned earlier Mother Teresa, Martin L King and Gandhi. Mother Teresa’s “WHY” was to feed the poor, Martin L King and Gandhi’s “WHY” the injustice of people. All three knew that one person could not do it so they inspired others to be involved.

Finally, the ninth and most crucial truth is YOU. I am including myself as well. “YOU make a difference.” The Truth About Leadership (James M Kouses Barry Z Posner) we must believe in ourselves. We must believe we can make a difference and move in that direction. We must believe we have all the attributes to challenge the status quo and be in love with the desire to change the world around us.

Online marketing has taken over the marketing industry considering that this is where most people spend their time. The fact that even mobile devices are largely used to browse the internet means that a huge number of people do access the internet on a daily basis hence brands that have an online presence have a higher chance of being more visible compared to those that don’t. However, visibility is of no value if you as a brand do not pass a compelling message to your targeted audience to make you stand out from the competition.

The content you upload or post on your website and your social media channels is of utmost importance. Content that is optimized for search engines will rank you highly in search results, but then you also need to have the right content to push your traffic into sales. It can determine your interaction with your readers and the kind of marketing impact you have on your targeted audiences. But why exactly does content matter in SEO?

It bridges you to your customers

Content is what speaks directly to the customers on your behalf. Unlike face to face interactions where it is easy for customers to verify details regarding your brand, you completely rely on the content you post to offer all necessary details and convince the customers enough to trust in what you are offering. Without proper content, your traffic will not be valuable and will instead move to the next available brand offering the same products.

It remains accessible

This is especially compared to ads that come at particular scheduled times. Content unlike such ads can be accessed by your customers at any given time, hence it can bring value when the customers are ready to buy. Many brands have included blogs on their website so it is easy for their readers to find whatever information they could be looking for increasing chances of them buying from you. As long as your marketing strategy is on point, you can be sure your content will fetch you good value.

It answers pressing questions

Sometimes all that customers need to know is how to do certain things or where to find certain this. When you are able to offer them the answers to their most pressing questions via the right content, you gain their trust and credibility which pays off in the end. Apart from just letting them in on your business and what you are involved in, you can add relevant information to answer questions related to whatever field you are in. With such kind of content you also stand a chance to take your search engine rankings even higher.

It sells

Your content is your most effective sales pitch. This will especially pass if you accompany it with high quality, relevant photos and even videos that are related to the kind of business you do. The fact is that people tend to trust more in things they have seen or things they know how to operate and this is what content will do on your behalf.

If you’re looking to replace your existing bed mattress but can’t afford a Sealy Posturepedic, don’t think you have to settle for second best. King Koil mattresses may not be as well known as some brands however, they deserve to be. They are cheaper but are just as good, if not better, than their more expensive competitors.

Don’t let anyone tell you that King Koil mattresses are cheap or off-brand. Certainly, they are cheaper than many other, well-known brands but that doesn’t mean they’re any less good. Quite often you get more with a King Koil mattress than you would with a more expensive counterpart. Also, just because the company may be less well-known than some other brands doesn’t mean they’re off-brand; the company has been making mattresses since 1898, longer than most.

If you’re looking for a traditional innerspring mattress that’s still reasonably priced then you should consider what this company has to offer. The company currently offers 3 main collections; the King Koil Spine Support, Perfect Contour and Perfect Contour Extraordinaire.

The Spine Support mattress offers a 3-zone Bonnell innerspring coil unit. The 420 coils are made from the best high-tempered steel. Attached to the spring unit is a layer of 2 1/2″ firm poly foam with an additional layer of 1/2″ memory foam. Unlike more expensive brands this bed mattress does not have to be flipped.

The Perfect Contour offers additional support with its 5-zone coil system. Additionally, each row of coils is then laced to adjoining rows with head-to-toe connecting wires that help prevent motion transfer from one sleep partner to the other. The edging is also excellent, using high-density foam to create a firm edge that helps to extend the total sleeping area of the mattress.

The Perfect Contour Extraordinaire is a step up, offering the buyer more luxurious fabrics and materials. This is the top-of-the-line collection of innerspring mattresses from King Koil. This is a quality bed mattress that’s a fraction of the cost of other brands like the Sealy Posturepedic.

The company also offers a latex mattress and, to my mind, is the best mattress the company makes. You will be hard pressed to find a latex version of this quality at this price.

If you know anything about latex mattresses you’ll know that Talalay is the finest available. Other companies, like Restonic, also offer this type, but few can match King Koil on price. The company’s latex mattress is known as the Natural Elegance collection. Natural is a little bit of a misnomer – I wish the company had chosen a different name – as the mattress is made from both natural and synthetic latex. The natural latex provides the ultimate luxury and support while the synthetic latex gives the mattress durability.

Quite honestly, you can buy better bed mattresses – the Sealy Posturepedic may arguably be better – however, you will not be able to find a mattress that can match King Koil mattresses for quality at such competitive prices.

He is not the biggest of the cat species. Siberian tigers are larger than African lions. In fact, he is not even the largest in the jungle. There are many other animals such as elephants, rhinos that are larger. Then why is the lion considered the king of the jungle? I wondered about this for quite some time during my childhood. As a matter of fact, they are pretty social and live in groups called as pride. There are around 10-15 lions in a pride and out of that only 2-3 are fully grown lions. Others are lionesses and cubs.

There are many stories told here in India about what is a lion’s share. Actually when lionesses in a pride hunt, the lion comes in after the fact and takes away a part of the kill. That is called as a Lion’s share. This disappointed me in the childhood. Not very macho by the big guy, right? So is it just the mane that makes him look majestic? But I have a healthy respect for elder generation and their opinions which are developed over the years of experience. Nobody has seriously challenged the fact that lions are the kings of the jungle. So there must be some reason why they are considered as the kings.

Lionesses are the ones who hunt and are mainly the breadwinners of the pride. They are smaller and more athletic and they hunt intelligently. Male lions will hunt only when it is required and when they are alone away from the pride. But they are unbelievably powerful and can take down a prey that will need 4-5 lionesses to kill.

There are several videos on YouTube and in other places of the internet which give you a clearer picture of these magnificent creatures. There is a video in which a lioness is trying to catch a wildebeest from a herd. But despite her experience due to the huge numbers, she is unable to do so. And while the filming goes on, a male lion comes out of nowhere and from a 100 strong wildebeests running away just plucks a prey out. I was aghast watching this. Just the show of courage and strength is breathtaking to watch.

There is another video that shows a group of wild buffalos attacking a pair of lion and lioness. The big guy just turned on the buffalos and showed a nerve I cannot imagine any other animal on earth has. He just kept them away with guts, power, and determination. No one, just no one in this world can do this.

There are several speculations about what will happen if a lion and a tiger of the same size fight. Tiger, although a powerful animal, cannot really beat the king. See the videos available. Lions are just fighting machines, natural born fighters who are meant to lead and they have courage. The tigers although better hunters; cannot outlast the lions because lions have a stamina for a longer duel. In any event, these two superb creations of nature do not meet each other often because tigers live in jungles and lions on grasslands.

It will be a tragedy if these creatures are not there to see for the next generations. Although efforts are taken to protect them, human curiosity is also a thing to consider during protection.

The Ab King Pro is a popular fitness equipment which is sold in many countries around the world. It is basically a workout bench which moves on its axis with you as you’re doing crunches on it. The main benefit is that your back and neck are supported on this bench. For people with back problems this can prove to be a way to do crunches without so much pain.

However, the main question about the Ab King Pro is does it work? After all, the infomercial promises or at least suggests wondrous results with this fitness machine and the question is whether or not these are the real results that can be expected.

Some people seem to believe that using the Ab King Pro will help them get flat abs. If you think so too I want you to keep in mind three important facts:

1. No ab machine alone can get you flat abs. It’s just impossible. The reason why this cannot happen is that you can’t get flat abs by doing stomach exercises alone. The way our stomach is built is in layers. The muscle layer is underneath the fat layer. This means that it doesn’t really matter how strong your stomach is, as long as you have excess abdominal fat, you will never have flat looking abs.

Since it’s virtually impossible to spot reduce fat with any exercise, you can’t burn off belly fat by doing stomach exercises of any kind, whether with this machine or any other. Therefore, the key to getting flat abs is to do fat burning workouts and not just stomach exercises.

2. Although the Ab King Pro supports your neck and back, which is a true benefit, it doesn’t help you do a more rigorous exercise than the basic crunch. You get the same effect as you would had you performed the exercise on a mat. Therefore, you shouldn’t expect miraculous results from it. Your stomach muscles can become stronger, but not in a accelerated way.

3. No one ever got a flat stomach by exercising alone. The biggest key to fat loss isn’t how you workout but how you eat. It doesn’t matter if you train from sunrise to sunset, if you don’t eat right you will not lose belly fat and will not have the perfect abs you seek. This is why the Ab King Pro cannot work alone. It has to be used alongside a sensible and healthy eating plan.

Use this machine if you want more support for your neck and back, but make sure to remember the 3 facts I outlined to avoid disappointment and steer you on the road to success.

Shivaji was born in 1628 and passed away in 1680 at the relative young age of 52. His entire life was spent in the shadow of the greatest Moghul conqueror in Hindustan namely Aurangzeb. Much as we malign Aurangzeb, the fact cannot be oblitered that he reigned over the largest empire ever in India and no other Indian king or emperor including Samrat Ashok ruled over a larger area than Aurangzeb.

Aurangzeb was the Shehan Shah( king of kings) and this was the salutation with which Guru Gobind Singh addressed him in his letter in the Zafarnama, which forms part of the ” Dusam Granth”. Shivaji also like Gobind Singh lived at a time when Aurangzeb was at his pinnacle and the fact is that even after the death of Shivaji in 1680, Aurangzeb lived on for another 27 years before he breathed his last in 1707.

Shivaji ruled in comparison to Aurangzeb, a minuscule area and one must accept the fact that compared to Aurangzeb, Shivaji was a small time ruler. Much of the build up of Shivaji has taken place after Independence and now he is connected as part of the freedom movement as well. However many Western historians who have chronicled the life of Shivaji have concluded that he was a small time chieftain in the Mughal Raj. We can now try and do a bit of research and remove rhetoric and legend from the bald facts of history to see what place does Shivaji have in the pantheon of great kings and soldiers like Chengiz Khan, Ghazni, Alexander and Robert Clive.

Shivaji Contribution as a Soldier

Many romantics in Mahrashtra and the fringe areas around this state talk in glowing terms about Shivaji and his “victory” over the Mughals. But the fact is that outside these areas nobody seems to know about Shivaji as he was a local influence. When I was posted in the Headquarters Eastern Air Command, I was surprised that people in the East had never heard of Shivaji, but they had heard of Robert Clive and Ghazni. So the reader can draw his own conclusions.In Mahrashtra many myths abound and one of them echoed by many erudite persons is that Shivaji soundly defeated Aurangzeb and his army. Many erudite people in Pune informed me about it.

The facts are however different. British historians who have loved India like Cunningham have opined that Shivaji was effectve in only a few districts around Pune, in particular the Western Ghat area and Aurangzeb treated him more like a small time chieftain and bandit, because given the chance he looted the royal treasury. Shivaji thus had limited control over the land ruled by Aurangzeb. He never had a large standing army and except for one pitched battle with the Mughal forces commanded by Raj Jai Singh, the C in C of the Mughal army, he never ventured to fight another battle. In this particular battle known as the Battle of Chakan fought in 1660, the Maratha army under Shivaji was defeated.

Talking of another pitched battle is the Battle of Purandar fought in 1665 between the Mahratha army under Shivaji and the Mughal army sent by Aurangzeb. The Mughal army commander was again Raja Jai Singh and he was assisted by General Dilir Khan. The battle is important as after the death of the Maratha General Murar Baji Prabhu on 2 June 1665, the Mughals steam rolled a victory. Shivaj was defeated and surrendered 23 of his forts.

Shivaji, however, did win some battles, but mostly they were small affairs and he won when the bulk of the Mughal army had retreated. But he was a brave man, but bravery does not bring victory, but tactics and support. The fact is that many Maratha warriors had sided with the Mughals and Shivaji was fighting a battle with one arm tied behind his back. Thus he could not sustain an open battle or invasion like the great conquerors of history like Alexander the Great, Chegiz Khan or Mahmud of Ghazni.

Shivaji resorted to guerrilla tactics and in this, he was highly successful. But the writings of Che Guevera and Mao Tse Tung who are the masters of the theory of Guerrilla tactics teach us that Guerrilla warfare can harass and tease but a guerrilla war can never on its own win victory. At some stage, the Guerrilla war has to be converted to a conventional war and then only will victory come. Mao converted his guerrilla war after the Long March and end of World war II into a conventional war against the Nationalist Forces of Chiang Kai Shek and won. So did Ho Chi Minh who also converted the guerrilla war into a conventional war in Vietnam in the last stage and overran the South. Garibaldi from Italy is also an example.

Shivaji was a highly successful guerrilla captain of war, but he could not convert his type of warfare to a conventional war and defeat Aurangzeb. This was his fallacy and weakness and the result was that he remained just a pinprick in the massive empire of Aurangzeb that stretched from Afghanistan to Bengal and the deep south. It was only after the death of Aurangzeb and arrival on the scene of Baji Rao, that the Maratha empire began to take shape. But again it was a short-term rule as the Maratha empire was decimated in 1761 in the 3rd battle of Panipat and also crushed by the Duke of Wellesley.

Coming to Shivaji one must give him credit for raising the banner of revolt against the great Aurangzeb, who in factual matters was a bigoted ruler. He destroyed Hindu temples and was a pious man. His world of India was through Islamic eyes, but that does not detract from his ability as a great conqueror.

The fact remains that mostly when the Mughal army marched against Shivaji in strength, they always had the better of the jousts. In 1679 the famous battle of BhupalGarh took place. The Mughal army surrounded the fort of Bhupalgarh and Shivaji was defeated.

All this makes very sad reading, but as a soldier, I am dispassionate and not swayed by rhetoric. Just before his death the last battle was fought by Shivaji and the Mughals. it was the battle of Sangamner in 1679. This battle took place after Shivaji was returning from a sack of Jalna. The battle lasted for 3 days and ended when the Maratha general Sidhoji Nimbalkar was killed as well as 2000 soldiers. It was a crushing defeat. Shivaji fled the battlefield with 500 soldiers. The curtain came down on Shivaji as he expired next year(1680).

Shivai was no doubt a great and brave man, but in contrast to the great captains of military history, one must conclude that Shivaji was not in the same bracket.

Assessment of Shivaji

Before we pass judgment on Shivaji, one must remember the socio-economic situation in India at that time. The fact is the Hindus were a defeated lot and there was rampant caste discrimination. In addition to this ills like sati, child marriage and weird beliefs ruled the roost. The golden age of the Gupta and Muraya Empire was a thing of the past and a new and alien belief had taken hold of the soul of India.

This was a time for someone to rise and carry the Hindu flag. This is also the period when Hindus had no worthwhile leader or hero to emulate or cheer about. Shivaji came on the scene and roused the spirits of the Hindus and for this, he must get full marks. There is no doubt his place among the great soldiers and conquerors is not there, but he kept the Hindu flag alive by his bravery and example. To challenge the Shehan Shah, Aurangzeb himself the mightiest of the Mughal emperors was no mean feat. Yet, Shivaji took up the sword against him. He could not have success is a fact, but he roused the Hindus and showed that given the will, everything is possible.

After the death of Shivaji and of Aurangzeb, the legacy of Shivaji was carried forward by others and a Maratha empire was established. The roots of this lie in the die-hard campaign of Shivaji. For the Mughals, the defeats of Shivaji in retrospect were a Phyrric victory as after Aurangzeb the Mughal empire went into decline.

At the same time, we must asssess Shivaji as a soldier in world history. His biggest contribution is not that he won or lost, but a chance to show the Hindus and world that they could also fight. But to characterise him as a great conqueror is a misnomer

Do you wonder how women in the fifties gave birth to as many as 12 children and were still healthy and poised enough while on the other hand, we seem to go crazy with just one child to take care of? If you find out how they brought up children in those times, you will say “no wonder they gave birth to a newborn every year”.

Raising children has no doubt become a lot difficult than what it was in those times. Old methods are criticized a lot nowadays because of their harshness. It sounds cruel to treat babies like that but in the end it might turn out to be a good for both children and parents.

The main idea in the fifties, in Truby King method is that ‘children should be seen not heard’. This was a very popular idea in those times and children were brought up as being sophisticated, graceful, and with good manners.

In this method, you do things according to a routine, which is set up according to normal feeding and sleeping patterns. You do not do things, which your baby tells you to do, but you do things, which your routine says. This is based on the concept that in the first year, a baby only needs to rest, grow and develop. His needs do not include cuddling and playing with him. You feed him according to the normal routine of every 2 hours or 4 hours. If he cries in between his feeds, he should be left to cry. Although, parents might get stressed if the baby cries too much but after a few days, she will also fall into the routine and everything will be easier. There will be no more sleepless nights, as the baby will sleep through the night. The method also includes some short time of playing time in which the baby should be left to play by himself and another short time of fresh air in which the baby should be taken out even if it is freezing cold outside. According to this method, the baby should have his own room from the day he is born.

Many people are following this method and are very successful in raising up kids in a stress free manner. This does not mean they never play with their kids as the above routine is only for the initial and the difficult months.

If you are blessed with twins or triplets, this method might be the best for you since it means you will be able to deal with your babies easily instead of making your life a hell.

So you got a new king bed and now the FUN part, picking out just the right king size bed linens. Whoa! Be careful, not all king beds are the same. You would be advised to carefully measure the mattress length from head to foot, from side to side and especially the depth or thickness from top to bottom.

Most king mattresses measure 76 inches head to foot and 80 inches side to side. It’s the top to bottom or depth that may cause a problem. Older king mattresses were pretty standard at 8 to 12 inches. Because of newer materials and manufacturers’ competition, that has all changed. There are regular mattresses, air beds,water beds, foam top mattresses, and sofa beds. Some of these beds even move. These come in a variety of depths from the original 8 inches up to and including 21 inches.

For the most part, the thickness of the mattress is only relevant for the fitted bottom sheet. Instead of just elastic at the corners, some fitted sheets have elastic all around for a better fit and ease to put on and take off. The top sheets are pretty standard, usually 102 inches by 108 inches. Most other linens such as comforters, duvet covers, bedspreads and blankets are standard too. Wait a minute, my mattress measures 72 inches side to side and 84 inches from head to foot. WHY? You have a California King sized mattress. That needs a different size fitted sheet. Watch the depth size there as well. The other regular king size items will fit the California king mattress. There a few California king top or flat sheets that add a couple extra inches to the length.

There is another sneaky trick the Simmons mattress company came out with in the 1990s, the Olympic Queen. This mattress is 66 inches wide and so could fool you into thinking it is a King. It did not catch on, so not a lot of them are left out there. It is still possible to find bedding sized just for them. You might have to hunt the internet for them though.

And then there is the split mattress king bed. These are the Craftmatic or TempurPedic type beds, where each side moves independently. The head moves up and the lower part of the bed bends so the legs and feet are elevated. You need to decide if you need fitted sheets for each bed separately or one king sheet to cover both mattresses. If one person will be using the movement properties and the other won’t, it might be wise to get separate fitted twin size sheets. Again measure to see if you need regular twin or twin XL sheets. From there you decide if you want to make each bed with its own top sheet, blanket, etc. or just use king bed linens to cover both. One more thing to consider, are you planning to add a solid foam or egg crate type topper on the mattress? Be sure to take that into consideration, when determining the thickness for the fitted sheet.

Using these steps to determine just the right king bed linens for your new bed, should ensure a comfortable nights sleep.

King size mattresses are the daddy of the mattress world. Measuring 5 ft x 6 ft 6 inches (150 cm x 200 cm), they certainly offer plenty of space. But if you’re still unsure whether you really want all that extra room, you need to consider all the advantages and disadvantages involved.

Of course, the huge advantage to buying a king size mattress is the size. You should comfortably be able to spread out without disturbing your sleeping partner. If you’ve had particular issues in the past where you are unable to get a good night’s sleep, opting for king size is probably the right choice. Many people find that upgrading to king reduces the problems associated with their partner snoring, sleep talking, or tossing and turning during the night.

King size mattresses can also often result in better support for your back. As you’re able to spread out in any desired position, less strain is put on the spine. In addition, opting for a memory foam mattress will further increase your comfort. This technology was first developed by NASA scientists for space missions. The idea proved so successful that the technology was taken into the mass mattress market. Memory foam mattresses mould to the shape of your body, which ensures maximum comfort with minimum aches and pains.

But large mattresses come at a cost. Not only the initial price tag for buying the mattress, but an increase cost for duvets, sheets, and covers. If you use a laundry service, then washing your sheets may also cost a little more.

You also need to remember that a king size bed will take up much more space in your bedroom. When thinking about upgrading to king size, it’s always a good idea to measure out your room dimensions exactly. You can then better visualise exactly how much space will be taken up by your new bed.

Bigger mattresses might also be difficult to get into your bedroom. They don’t fit as well around tight corridors and low ceilings. Always consider how you might get the mattress into its desired location.

Although being much larger than the average mattress, king size mattresses can sometimes be colder than smaller alternatives. They take longer to get warm and don’t hold the heat in quite as effectively. This is especially a problem if you’re going to be using the mattress just for yourself, without a partner.

Scott-King’s Modern Europe is a short, perhaps over-short novella by Evelyn Waugh. Written in 1946, it visits a fictitious part of Europe largely unknown to its determinedly English protagonist. In 1946 Scott-King had been classical master at Grantchester for twenty-five years, we are told in the tale’s first sentence. This locks the book’s principal character firmly in his place within the English class system, sketches his likely character, with its staid dedication to what has always been and remains “right”, and posits him without doubt in the apolitical conservatism of an ultimately submissive establishment. It’s the kind of England that used to believe that fog at Dover meant that Europe was cut off. Thus Waugh presents him to his undoubtedly sympathetic readers.

Out of a non-political blue comes a request from the little-known and less understood and now independent state of Neutralia that Scott-King attend a national celebration of a long-forgotten national poet called Bellorius. The writer died in 1646 and left a fifteen hundred line tract, written in Latin hexameters, of unrelenting tedium. It described a journey to an unknown new world island, where there subsisted a virtuous, chaste and reasonable community, Waugh tells us. This utopia was left forgotten and unread, until it appeared in a German edition in the twentieth century, a copy of which Scott-King picked up while on holiday some years ago. Thus the teacher of classics began a relationship with this European obscurity that led to this invitation to visit his homeland.

Scott-King’s Modern Europe is so short that any more detail of its plot would undermine its reading. Suffice it to say that the international delegation is not what it seems. Things do not go to plan, or perhaps do, depending on your perspective on Neutralian politics, whose internecine struggles could not be further from anything associated with aloof Britishness, let alone its higher class relative, Englishness. Life becomes unbearably complicated for the scrupulously fair Scott-King. He may, perish the possibility, suffer such ignominy as not having enough traveller’s cheques left to cover his hotel bill!

As the farce develops, the celebration of Bellorius morphs into something decidedly more contemporary, whose limits become ever more blurred. Most of those involved are revealed, in some form or another, as frauds, except of course for the stolid and enduring Englishman of the title, who throughout remains the epitome of the innocent victim. If there is fault in the world, then it’s all the fault of foreigners, those who live over there, those who speak the unintelligible languages that aren’t English and live in those unbearable climates that have sunshine. They do not play fair in politics, and confuse responsibility with gain, All unthinkable at home, of course…

It all works out in the end, after a fashion. Let it be recorded here only that, true to the values of the English Public School where Scott-King has taught, it is a former pupil, ever loyal, that eventually extracts his former teacher from his troubles. But what is enduringly interesting about this little book is the depth of the metaphor that classical education presents. It is a culture in decline. Its vales are destined not to endure. Inevitably, the values enshrined in the assumption of this enduringly educated state are set themselves to disappear. The English surely are going to become like the untrustworthy, squabbling, divided Neutralians, and all the other foreigners with their unacceptable strange ways, who previously had only ever lived “over there”.

Written at the end of the second world war, when perhaps mythically the British had stood alone, the book is perhaps the author’s reflection on events that saw the division of Europe into opposing camps. The territorial integrity of the United Kingdom, and essentially England within it, had been maintained. But those “over there” we’re still foreign and thankfully thy weren’t “over here”. Their values weren’t our values, and yet their influence was all-pervading, or at least potentially so. Britain, and the English on the throne within it, we’re still alone, still threatened. This is the culture that is suffused throughout Evelyn Waugh’s little book and it is the assumption that makes its reading in 2018 at least poignant. It might even have been written a week ago, based on anyone’s list of presumptions that surrounded the Brexit referendum. Everything that was not an English value is manifest in this non-culture of Neutralia, a nation that needs to invent heroes raised from within the mediocrity of its unrecognized and – even more reprehensible – unrecorded past. How non-English can one get?

Waugh’s humor enlivens the story and his unapologetic Englishness almost renders himself as the principal character. It is short enough to be read in an hour, but it’s sentiment and message will resonate very strongly with contemporary readers. In Britain’s current political context, Scott-King’s Modern Europe is a little book with a big message.