Watching the English

The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour - 'Absolutely brilliant' JENNIFER SAUNDERS

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Watching the English

By: Kate Fox

Narrated by: Joan Walker

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Summary

Hilarious, insightful and endlessly entertaining, discover the unspoken rules of English behaviour

The unofficial guidebook to the English national character by anthropologist Kate Fox.

From the class system to conversation etiquette, Kate Fox picks apart and exposes the bizarre codes of behaviour that the English unconsciously obey.

If you are English, this book will make you re-examine everything you take for granted. And if you aren't English, it will help you navigate the rules of this peculiar culture.

THE BESTSELLING MODERN CLASSIC. OVER HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLD.

*WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY GRAYSON PERRY

©2004 Kate Fox (P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd©2004 Kate Fox

Kate FoxJoan WalkerHodder & Stoughton

Anthropology

Europe

Great Britain

England

Anthropology Europe Great Britain England

Critic reviews

An absolutely brilliant examination of English culture and how foreigners take as complete mystery the things we take for granted.

She has not only compiled a comprehensive list of English qualities, she has examined them in depth and wondered how we came to acquire them. Her book is a delightful read.

I loved the section on mobile-phone etiquette. Shrewd...I liked the chapter on English humour. This is an entertaining, clever book. Do read it and then pass it on.

Kate Fox's brilliant idea is to treat the British as another tribe...where she's particularly astute is in examining the exact pattern of clichés. Any study of the English must cover our class obsession, and Fox deals with the subject thoroughly.

If you like this kind of anthropology (and I do) there is a wealth of it to enjoy in this book. Her observations are acute... fortunately she doesn't write like an anthropologist but like an English woman - with amusement, not solemnity, able to laugh at herself as well as us.

Brilliant and hilarious

I read it cover to cover in a few days . . . very sharp and witty prose. It really is funny - the sort of humour that makes you laugh out loud on your own!

She is the only popular UK anthropologist of substance since the 1970s.

She's a witty and eloquent writer whose accessible book reads as a scholarly classification of our shared codes of behaviour and an affectionate homage to our foibles.

It is consistently the most popular text I teach, not only because it's a hilarious page-turner but also because Fox offers truly insightful glimpses into what a sophisticated anthropological mindset can reveal about human cultural life . . . Watching the English embodies the anthropological credo of making the strange familiar and the familiar strange.

Most relevant

This book made me laugh aloud at various points. As a foreigner living in England, this book should be required reading for anyone living here; including the natives