Greetings, Anglophiles!

Hope life is treating all of you well. I wanted to announce that we are having a book club in March. The title is "The 199 Steps" by Michel Faber. It's actually a novella, so it's a pretty short read, but our small group of enthusiastic bookworms is looking forward to reading and discussing it. We would love to have you join us! For more information, click the link to the forum at the bottom of this newsletter.

Before I announce the latest articles, I'm collecting information for a future article. Give me some funny place names around England. I know there are a lot! Just hit reply to this message, and tell me of some places you know with silly names (gold star for you if you know how the town got that name). I'll publish the funniest responses in my article, with a mention of your name (make sure to tell me where you're from, as well). One word of caution though, BellaOnline is a family site, so let's keep it clean. I know of some towns with pretty vulgar names (one of my friends owns a book about that very subject).

I based my latest article on another article that's been getting a lot of hits in my archives. You really want to know about British slang...well, I deliver!:

British Phraseology
The very first article I wrote for this site, about British slang terms, is still one of the most popular articles I´ve written on English Culture. So for awhile now, I´ve been thinking I should do a sequel. After all, I hardly covered everything.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art49413.asp

Also, an interesting question to ponder:

Does England Really Have a Culture?
Some people question if England has its own culture, and consider it a mixture of Norman, Roman, and other influences. I'm going to discuss some very English icons that hopefully provide evidence of the existence of English culture.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art25206.asp

Please visit englishculture.bellaonline.com for even more great content about English Culture.

To participate in free, fun online discussions, this site has a community forum all about English Culture located here -

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=69

I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback!

Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

Karyn Johnson, English Culture Editor
http://englishculture.bellaonline.com

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com