British Fascism in the 1930s in Life and Literature

Political and economic turmoil in 1930s Britain gave rise to a home-grown fascist movement led by the controversial Oswald Mosley. Literature of this period by Joseph O'Neill and Rex Warner mirrored the internal nature of the British fascist movement by depicting fascist-like societies embedded under or entrenched within the English countryside. Their metaphors of fascism rising as a solution to fear and disorder conjure the threat of fascism that was rising in Europe in that period. The metaphors are made more particularly relevant by the fact that the forces of Italian, German, and British fascism were not invasions from without, but growths from within. Furthermore, the recipe of severe political and economic downturn combined with the rise of a charismatic group leading their distressed people toward fascism is still relevant today in Greece and other European countries.