Peel Memorial Service

Today in Knots End, Surrey, members of the British Thong Society will be laying a commemorative thong on the grave of Sir Henry Peel, founder of the BTS. This year's thong has been kindly provided by Mrs. Joan Karlin, who hand stitched Sir Henry's profile onto the silk pouch.

The service will be followed by a ball, in Sir Henry's honour, in the family home, led by a 'thong orchestra'.

Good Luck Herietta!

Henrietta Tarbuck has started her sponsored trek from Land's End, today. Herietta has taken up the challenge as part of the Society's campaign to stamp out thong ignorance in Africa. Wearing only a thong and a digital watch, Herietta hopes to complete the marathon walk in three weeks. Accompanying her on the journey is her father, Terry, who will be following every inch of the way on a bicycle. Unlike his daughter, Terry has admitted that he will be wearing a normal pair of Y fronts.

'I'd be more than happy to support the cause of the thong,' he said, ' but the doctor has warned me against chafing due to a recent operation.'

UPDATE: An Evening With English Thongs

Can we just inform members that there was a typing mistake in the last newsletter. Mrs. Rose's 'Evening with English Thongs' is not taking place on the 24th of January, but the evening of the 25th. We apologize for our mistake.

For those of you who don't get this message, Mrs. Rose has kindly agreed to be at the church hall on the 24th, with her collection of thongs.

Press Release

Recent promotion of novelty thongs in the UK has been drawn to the attention of the British Thong Society. It is clear that the display of this kind of underwear can be detrimental to the long term goals of our society. Although the Society works hard to educate the country as to the healthy benefits to be had by wearing thongs, it is clear that much work has yet to be done to bring thong wearing into the mainstream of British society.

Accordingly, the executive committee of the British Thong Society is today issuing a press release. in relation to the manufacture of comedy thongs.

It reads:

Members of the British Thong Society would like to make it clear that we condone the wearing of comedy thongs. It is the long held view of the Society that publicity relating to thongs in the shape of chickens, snakes, and hairy lemmings, does not accurately represent the views of sensible thong wears in the UK.

Furthermore. In our fight to get the thong recognised as a sensible underwear, we do not think it right to promote, sell, or manufacture items of clothing that do not further that aim. We would like out membership to boycott these novelty thongs and to encourage their friends and family to do likewise. Thongs have been long known to have many medical benefits and reducing them to the things of cheap and vulgar jokes does nothing but mock wearers everywhere.

New Year

A new year and plenty of exciting things in prospect for the BTS. We're got some excellent social events for your new BTS diaries -- they should arrive with you with in the week -- and some fascinating talks in our ongoing lecture series.

Check out the BTS newsletter and for updates here on the blog. If all goes well, we also hope to have the new British Thong Society website up and running at some point in the year.

Merry Christmas

Can I, on behalf of all the staff and executive here at the British Thong Society, wish you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Exhibition Request

We've had an email from Society member Ken Moore wanting to know if we have any plans to organize another museum exhibition.

The last one, 'A Brief History of Thongs', received such glowing reviews when the V&A agreed to our using one of their annexes that we've had dozens of such requests in the last year. Unfortunately, Dr. Koike, who organized the exhibition, has now returned to the University of Tokyo after his year spent at Kings College. If we could find an equally knowledgeable academic to act as curator, a new exhibition might be possible. As it is, the amount of work we'd need to do to contact the owners of the thongs used in the show means that it's impossible for any of full time Society staff to manage it.

The Thong Journal

The latest edition of The Thong Journal has come back from the printers and we will be sending it out to Society members in the next few days. The journal is a bumper edition this year, with seventeen articles and dozens of reviews of the latest in thongs. We also have a special interview with TV actor David Jason on why he became a late convert to the thong. It also has the usual competitions, prize drawers, and reports of thong-related events across the country.

For non-members, the Journal is priced £8.00 and can be purchased by writing to the Society at the above address.

Subscription Renewal Notice

Membership subscriptions are to rise by £2 this year, the first rise in nearly a decade. Members are advised to get their subscriptions in as soon as possible as we’re currently dealing with a backlog in applications after a huge rise in interest in thongs after Peter Goyle's excellent series of documentaries.

From October 2006, a year's membership to the society is now £22, which includes two copies of The Thong Journal and conference fees for the yearly Thong Conference.

Thong Documentary

Thong wears might be interested in a documentary to be shown tonight at 9.30pm on UK Horizons. The programme is presented by a name, well known to Society members. Peter Goyle has worked for twenty years in researching the trends of underwear and is one of the world's foremost experts in g-strings, thongs, and posing pouches. The programme, entitled 'Thong World', explores the relationship between thong wearing and neo-liberal values since the end of the second world war.

Anybody with an interest in thongs would advised to tune in. We are yet to determine if the programme will be available on DVD.

Bring and Buy Sale

The Sunderland branch of the British Thong Society will be holding a bring and buy sale at 7pm in St. David's Church, Fernly Street, on 14th September. If you have any old thongs or duplicates in your collection, you might like to take them along and see what price you can get for them.

Ron Jones, the regional chairman of the association, promises that this year's sale will be bigger than the one they held in 2006. 'We've got double the number of stalls and have organised entertainment with a local pensioners dance troup on hand to show us their moves.'

Devon Conference

The British Thong Society Conference will be held this week, running 19-22 July.

We hope all members can attend and enjoy what should be fantastic few days.