The modern concept of twin towns, conceived after the second world war, was intended to build friendship, boost trade and to encourage understanding through co-operation.
Originally limited to towns, cities, counties, oblasts, prefectures, provinces, regions, states and even countries, twinning now extends to the virtual world – Wincanton in Somerset is twinned with Ankh-Morpork, an entirely fictional city that appears in the fantasy novels of Terry Pratchett, and the Isle of Skye which is twinned with Skylanders, a multi-million selling video game. In 2009 Swindon twinned with Walt Disney World.
If businesses could twin we’d like to twin with Laredo, a mysterious wild west town hidden somewhere in Kent, just to get our inky fingers on their Arab, one of the finest hand-fed letterpress machines in the land.
If you could twin, who would you twin with?
