Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Watching the English

It's not often that I rave about a book quite so much in public before I've even finished reading it, but having impulsively picked up Watching the English - The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour by Kate Fox in the bookshop a few days ago I'm finding it utterly fascinating and not a little enlightening.

The author is an anthropologist who's applied the traditional methods of analysis to her native culture and come up with a meticulously observed portrait of the English character which is substantially more optimistic than, for instance, Jeremy Paxman's book from a few years ago. Covering such areas as emerging mobile phone etiquette (a field which anthropologists are wetting themselves over as they get to observe a new system of rules in development, which doesn't happen often), the rules of weather talk (do not disagree with statements made about the weather as a conversation-starter) and the irrationality of the enormous fuss made by many people who've never been to sea when the Shipping Forecast was moved to a different time she presents an informative and accurately observed yet, mercifully, funny picture of the English without resorting to outright self-ridicule.

I've learnt a few things about my fellow countrymen (and, I fear, about myself) already that I hadn't observed before, and the author deserves enormous credit and possibly danger money for having done such things in the line of research as bumping into people without saying "Sorry" and pushing into queues.

A recommended read, despite the fact that I haven't finished yet. I'm enjoying it too much to not write something about it.