How Great is Britain

Anglophile: (noun)A person who has a deep appreciation for England — its culture, traditions, countryside, and everyday rhythms of life. For some, it’s the history and landmarks that draw them in; for others, it’s the quieter comforts — birdsong in the morning, daffodils in spring, and a bench perfectly placed to take it all in. When we imagined life in England, we thought the big things would be...

Six months ago we moved our family from the United States to the United Kingdom — with two little girls, two dogs, and no jobs waiting for us when we arrived. So how are we actually paying for it? In this episode we’re sharing the financial strategy that made the move possible, how we prepared before leaving the US, and the plan we’re using to support our family during our first year living in the...

Six months ago, we uprooted our entire lives and moved our family from the US to the UK.At first, everything felt overwhelming and unfamiliar. There were moments we genuinely wondered if we’d ever feel settled — or if this would always feel temporary. But slowly, something shifted. The routines formed (mostly). The logistics got sorted (for the most part). England has started to feel like ours. We...

American health insurance is something we lived with for years, for Brett - his WHOLE life! In this episode, we break down:• What American health insurance actually is• How deductibles, copays, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket maximums really work• Whether it’s possible to avoid surprise medical bills• And why we are so grateful to be experiencing the NHS (National Health Service) We’re not here to...

America - We built our lives there. Built careers there. Our daughters were born there. Then we moved to England. Why? This is just our perspective — two parents trying to make the best decision we could with the information and circumstances we had at the time. Sometimes life shifts in ways you didn’t plan. And when it does, it forces you to revisit the questions you’d quietly parked. We weren’t...

Some holidays make you feel like you want to stay forever. Others help you realize where home truly is. This episode closes out our time in Florida. We move from the Orlando Science Center to Hollywood Studios and EPCOT, letting the moments unfold as they did — familiar places, good friends, a few stories from our past professional lives, and unexpected Brett Facts that reveal just how big of a ne...

Come with us as we travel from England to Orlando, Florida — from Heathrow to Magic Kingdom — sharing the small moments and familiar places that now feel a little… different. In this episode, we bring you along as the journey unfolds: from the airport, onto the plane, and into our first moments back in Orlando. You’ll go where we go as we drink fizzy drinks at 8:30 in the morning (thanks, jet lag)...

New Episodes EVERY Monday! We recently went back to America expecting nostalgia, homesickness, and a bit of uncertainty about our decision to move to England. Instead, we were surprised... Not by what we missed, but by how we felt. In this episode, we talk about the days leading up to the trip, what we thought revisiting our recent past might stir up, and the moment halfway through the week when o...

New Episodes EVERY Monday! It's our first family Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day in the UK — and honestly, what an amazing experience! We left our food shopping until very nearly the last minute- only to be pleasantly surprised by Aldi- fully stocked and shockingly affordable (the true Christmas miracle may, in fact, be their vegetable prices). Aldi, if you’re listening, we’re ope...

New Episodes EVERY Monday! As the year comes to a close, we wanted to pause for a moment and take stock of how far we’ve come — not just where we are now, but everything it took to get here. Making an international move while raising two young girls and two dogs has felt like living in the "sticky middle" of where we were and where we hope to be. During this time of moving and settling,...

New Episodes EVERY Monday! This week, we’re sitting down for a cosy chat about Christmas — and realising that even though we both thought we grew up celebrating like everyone else, it turns out our childhood Christmas experiences could be quite different. From subtle British Christmas lights to full-blown American neighbourhood light fights, stockings on the bed versus stockings on the fireplace,...

New Episodes EVERY Monday! We’re back for Part 2 of our Christmas music extravaganza! This time we’re diving into our personal Top 5 Christmas songs, exploring why certain tracks stick with us, and discovering that we each look for something completely different in our festive favourites. Gemma gravitates toward the upbeat, classic British hits she grew up with, while Brett leans into the wintery,...

New Episodes EVERY Monday! It’s officially December, which means the stockings have been hung, the festive pyjamas are on, and we’re kicking off a whole month of holiday themed episodes! This week, we’re diving into one of our favourite parts of the season: Christmas music. We begin by talking about how important it was to get all of our Christmas decorations safely over from America, and then swa...

🎧  New episodes Every Monday After a week of exploring coastline, memories, farm shops, and childhood favourites, we’re back with Part Two of our Cornwall adventure — and this is where things get really special. This week, we finally reveal the new favourite place we discovered on this trip. It’s the spot that completely surprised us, made us slow down, and turned the whole week into something we...

🎧  New episodes Every Monday This week we’re kicking off the first half of our Cornwall adventure — a place that holds a lot of meaning for Gemma and her family. We talk about her memories of visiting Cornwall as a little girl, why it mattered so much to her grandparents, and how that connection has now become important to Brett too. We spent our days exploring the coast, eating our way through T...

Now that we’ve been in the UK just over two months, we’re finally settling in enough to share some real first impressions — the things that surprised us, delighted us, and made us rethink what “normal” even means. This week we talk about the beauty of the countryside and the way open spaces are woven into everyday life. It feels like everything is accessible here, from footpaths that cut across fa...

🎧  New episodes Every Monday After our time in Bristol, it was finally time to move into a place of our own—and what an adventure that turned out to be! This week, we share what it’s really like to rent a home in England, from the waiting and paperwork to navigating letting agents and figuring out how utilities actually work here. It’s a process that feels familiar and completely different all at...

🎧  New episodes Every Monday After a tough week in England, we finally started to find our rhythm—and Bristol was exactly what we needed. This week, we explore how the city helped us start to focus on something other than the stress of settling in and remember why we made this leap in the first place. From returning the rental car and wandering the streets on foot, to discovering castles, museums...

🎧  New episodes Every Monday We still can’t quite believe this actually happened… we met  Her Majesty the Queen . In this unforgettable episode, we share the full story of our  royal encounter in the UK  — from the surreal moment we realised we were about to  shake hands with the Queen , to what was said, how it felt, and the unexpected twist that made the day even more extraordinary (yes, it inv...

🎧  New episodes Every Monday What happens  after the excitement of moving abroad wears off ? When there’s no car, no permanent home, and no clear sense of what comes next—what does starting over really feel like? In this episode, we share the most  emotionally challenging week of our move from the USA to England . After less than a week in  Deal, Kent , we leave the coast behind and travel to  Br...

🎧  New episodes Every Monday After months of planning, paperwork, and emotional goodbyes, we finally made it— our family has officially moved from the USA to England  🇬🇧✈️ 👉 Follow our full journey, resources, and episodes at  www. HowGreatIsBritain.com In this episode, we continue our  international relocation journey  as we pick up in  Paris , where we’re reunited with our two dogs after their...

🎧  New episodes Every Monday How we left the US and our arrival in Paris, France, all in pursuit of moving to the UK!This week, we’re taking you back in time to our final days in America—a whirlwind of logistics, emotions, and last-minute adventures. Between prepping the dogs for international travel, selling a car we absolutely loved, and continuing to get rid of so much stuff, we were running o...

🎧  New episodes Every Monday It’s the last few days in our family home — and somehow everything is happening all at once. We wrapped up our final garage sale (where even a professional garage-saler wanted our “trash”), only to realize that our “timely” plans were anything but. Cue late nights cleaning until 4:30 a.m., frantic trips to the dump, and donation runs to clear out what was left behind....

🎧  New episodes Every Monday It’s the final week before moving out of our home, and we’re knee-deep in piles of keep, donate, sell, and why-do-we-have-this-in-the-first-place? From predawn starts to 2 AM finishes, we’ve been hustling to clear out our possessions and memories and literally put them out to sea. And just to make things even more interesting, we accidentally packed our tea mugs—so we...

🎧  New episodes Every Monday We are officially in the thick of it. One week until we move out of our house—and suddenly, everything feels very real. In this episode of  How Great Is Britain , we’re clearing out years of clutter while preparing for our move from the USA to the UK. That means attic purges in 100-degree heat (37.7°C), back-to-back garage sales, and getting two dogs ready for interna...