The nationalist books of Athelney

Athelney is (or was - I have conflicting evidence as to whether or not it still exists) a small publisher devoted to books on English nationalism. As far as I can tell, it has put out a total of six titles: An English Nationalism, by Tony Linsell; The English Dragon, by T.P. Bragg; English Witness to their Darkest Hour, by P Scrivener; Necessary Words, by Raymond Tong; The Deculturalisation of the English People, by the Rev. John Lovejoy; and the anthology Views from the English Community. These books range from non-fiction to fiction to poetry, but are all centred around English nationalism.

"The English Community", in this context, being a shorthand for "people who generally agree with Tony Linsell."

I first came across the company when I bought a copy of Views from the English Community that had been withdrawn from stock at a library. All of the authors mentioned above contributed pieces to the anthology, along with a few other people. Here's what editor Tony Linsell has to say:

He also discusses the topic of interracial marriage:

Looking through the list of the other contributors, we find an example of the interesting intersection between nationalism and Tolkien fandom:

As noted above, Athelney deals in poetry as well as non-fiction:

By far my favourite contributor, meanwhile, is this fella:

Oh, yes. Weren't we all better off before our children had to put up with all those stories about dashed foreign animals that don't even come from Europe?

...Er, well, maybe not. But surely he's right about curiously-coloured fantasy creatures being a sinister invention of the PC police, unheard of amongst earlier generations?

 ...Well, okay, let's move on. Surely he's right about the settings of children's fantasy - I mean, we wouldn't catch classic fairy tale illustrators like Edmund Dulac taking European characters such as the Little Mermaid, Bluebeard and Beauty and the Beast and putting them in oriental dress, would we?

Nah, forgeddaboutit.

At the time of writing, visitors to the Athelney website are greeted with an error message saying "this account has been suspended"; I'm not sure what happened there. It can still be found on Archive.org, however, allowing us to read such sour comments as this:

"English nationalists are often accused of being racists but this is nearly always due to a response conditioned by institutions of the state and the media, especially the broadcasting media. It is a jibe that is rarely directed at Scottish, Welsh, or Irish nationalists. Those who most often and easily dismiss English nationalists as racists (e.g. Guardian readers - 'Progresives') are usually keen supporters of Palestinian, Kurdish or Tibetan nationalism..."

Also relevant is a publisher called Anglo-Saxon Books. The two publishers are clearly connected: if we do WhoIs look-ups on Athelney and Anglo-Saxon Books, we can see that both are registered to the same address in Swaffham. Also, the official Anglo-Saxon Books shop on Amazon stocks titles by both publishers.

It would appear that AS Books and Athelney form a double-pronged strategy: the former aims for respectability, while the latter provides more controversial publications for readers who are already convinced.

Tony Linsell (As seen in this video)

I am not entirely sure who is behind this operation, but as an educated guess I would pick the aforementioned Tony Linsell. He is, as far as I can tell, the only person to have written books for both publishers, and is a dedicated activist in the cause of English nationalism.

Here's another of his books:

Our Englishness, now out of print, is something of an oddity. All sources I've seen agree that it was published by Anglo-Saxon Books, and yet it appears to be a political polemic more in line with Athelney's output. Here's the Amazon description:

'This work features contributions from seven writers who are positive about Englishness and their English identity. They argue for the existence of an English nation defined in terms of history, culture and community. They reject the "civic-society" and "civic nationalism" approach that current ideological orthodoxy demands.'

The book came out in 2000, the year of the first publications from Athelney. Is it possible that it was intended as a sort of dry run - Anglo-Saxon Books testing the waters under its own name before launching a sister company?

As its last title was published in 2008, I went looking for information on what (if anything) Athelney has been up to more recently and found something a little interesting. Two members of racist forums - Atrociter at Stormfront, and Edmundy at the Anglo-Saxon Foundation - mention an upcoming Athelney book called White Wyrm Rising: A Journey into Modern English Nationalism:

"You are right that the pen is mightier than the sword. Athelney Press are about to publish a book called 'White Wyrm rising-a journey into modern English Nationalism' in the next month or so, and this is aimed at the passionate but (deliberately) uneducated young to teach them their heritage and culture in a non patronising way. The author gives them the backdrop of history on his adventures over the last five years, revealing the reasons why we should really be spitting feathers and out on the streets. Folc on here will already know about the Norman holocaust and it's effects,the Great Rising when the English came within a fingertip of smashing the elites, and the draconian punishments the powers that be inflicted on the people to keep them in line. Of course for some of the youngsters, there isn't a hope. Their 'nationalism' starts and finishes with getting pissed with their mates, and having a shout at some Muzzies across the Police lines. But for some others, who can see things for what they really are, there are other roads out there for them to go down."

"I reckon the 'White Wyrm rising-a journey into modern English nationalism' will be published under the Athelney press. It's content isn't so academic. And perhaps Wodensson can leak a few details about another publication in preparation that members will definitely be interested in that will be out this year."

Here's the kicker. I did a search on the title "White Wyrm Rising" and turned up exactly four hits. Two of them are sites reprinting some kind of fantasy story which happens to mention a white wyrm rising, while the other two are the racist forums mentioned above:

The only two people to have publicly mentioned this upcoming book - if, indeed, Edmundy and Atrociter are two separate people, and not the same individual using different pseudonyms across two forums - are members of racist message boards. This, to me, speaks volumes about the kind of people that Athelney is in contact with.

Update: Just thought I'd mention a little extra that I found. A couple of days after writing this post, I came across another Stormfront posting from Atrociter. This time he's moaning about how "the ethnics have stole a march on us" and claiming that he spent the day with a trustee of the Steadfast Trust:

"I spent the day on Saturday with a trustee of the Steadfast Trust-the only charity for the ethnic English out there and he emphasised the need for English community groups to be set up everywhere, especially in the cities. It's shocking how much funding the various other 'communities' get from the councils and we-who pay the taxes-should be getting some of the money back our way too. If they can give 500 quid grants (and upwards) to Indian dancers, Somali mother and toddlers, African coffee mornings etc, they should give at least the same to English groups, or nothing to nobody so it's a win-win situation. Often on these pages we read of folc feeling isolated, despondant in the face of their areas changing around them and their families and a general feeling of helplessness. The ethnics have stole a march on us, continuously increasing in numbers till now they are the majority in places but still want all the help that was thrown at them when they were the minorities. We have to take a leaf out of their book and use what worked for them. The discrimination laws set up, much to the lefties disgust, apply to us too and councils cannot be seen to discriminate us. For more details PM or go direct to the Steadfast Trust website and start enquiring. They'll be happy to help you.
I don't know what's in place in Scotland, Wales or Ireland but although they don't have the mass immigration of England sooner or later certain towns will have their own tipping points. Every area should start preparing for the coming storm. At the very least you'll be 'linked up' with people with their eyes open."

The Steadfast Trust is an English nationalist charity (officially a non-racist one) that was co-founded by... Tony Linsell. Gets around, doesn't he?

You can read more about the Steadfast Trust here. Notice the list of trustees - I wonder which one of them spent his Saturday with a Stormfront member...