How long before we Brits celebrate Thanksgiving?

SO, farewell, Bernard Matthews, the turkey magnate, writes Peter Rhodes.

Did you notice how many people commented on the fact that he passed away, ironically, on that great turkey-fest, Thanksgiving Day?

This is significant. Only a few years ago, we Brits neither knew nor cared about Thanksgiving. It was purely a US thing. I would not be surprised if, in the next decade or so, Thanksgiving arrives in Britain and becomes as popular as the US-style Halloween.

We love American imports and we love stuffing our faces. A British Thanksgiving would fit nicely into that quiet gap between Bonfire Night and Christmas and give us yet another excuse to pig out.

What's more, it could have a truly British flavour. On Thanksgiving, the Yanks celebrate their founding fathers ( a bunch of witch-burning Puritans) leaving England and arriving in America.

We Brits could give thanks that they went.