Product Description

In WATCHING THE ENGLISH anthropologist Kate Fox takes a revealing look at the quirks, habits and foibles of the English people. She puts the English national character under her anthropological microscope, and finds a strange and fascinating culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and byzantine codes of behaviour.

The rules of weather-speak. The ironic-gnome rule. The reflex apology rule. The paranoid-pantomime rule. Class indicators and class anxiety tests. The money-talk taboo and many more . . .

Through a mixture of anthropological analysis and her own unorthodox experiments (using herself as a reluctant guinea-pig), Kate Fox discovers what these unwritten behaviour codes tell us about Englishness.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #469 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

The Times
‘Amusing . . . entertaining.'

Review
‘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.’ (The Sunday Times )

‘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.’ (Daily Telegraph )

‘Amusing . . . entertaining.’ (The Times )

‘Watching the English . . . will make you laugh out loud (“Oh God. I do that!”) and cringe simultaneously (“Oh God. I do that as well.”). This is a hilarious book which just shows us for what we are . . . beautifully-observed. It is a wonderful read for both the English and those who look at us and wonder why we do what we do. Now they’ll know.’ (Birmingham Post )

‘Fascinating reading.’ (Oxford Times )

'An absolutely brilliant examination of English culture and how foreigners take as complete mystery the things we take for granted.' (Jennifer Saunders, The Times )

'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.' (Daily Mail )

Jennifer Saunders, The Times
'An absolutely brilliant examination of English culture and how foreigners take as complete mystery the things we take for granted.'