Sovereign Mercia was an organisation that campaigned to establish a sovereign Mercian state in the English Midlands, and generally promoted the culture and identity of the region. Sovereign Mercia recognised the traditional Saint Alban's Cross charged with the white, double-headed Eagle of Leofric as the Mercian national flag, and proposed Life is a Beautiful Book (Stephanie de Sykes, 1974) as the Mercian national anthem, since it was used as the ATV Midlands start-up theme and therefore has a strong regional association.