Researching Britain and Europe, then and now

Writing on Britain’s relationship to Europe is of great personal importance to me. Originally from Germany, I have been living in the UK since 2007, and like many others in my position, I feel profoundly European. But as my current research constantly reminds me, close ties between European nations are by no means something we can take for granted. I have been working on literary and cultural responses to the First World War for years, and recently my work has turned to British and German magazines in the inter-war period and Second World War. The literary past of the early twentieth century thus acts as a constant reminder to me of how hard won positive European relations in the present are and how fragile trans-European collaboration is. This short chapter reflects on the parallels between the early twentieth century and the present with regard to British engagement with European cultural identity.