A Field Guide To The British.

A Field Guide To The British - Sarah Lyall

Following the complete lack of diversity so far three out five books being from the Black Library, and the other two being by Charles Stross (though almost representative of my collection and tastes at least 60% of my books being sci-fi 50+ both 40k and Star wars, and big collections of particular authours, 25+ plus of both Bernard Cornwell and Harry Turtledove) thought I'd better put something else in, and this just jumped out at me when I was in a discount book shop, and for £3.99 you can't go wrong.
Just scanning the blurb on the back had me raisinng a wry smile, the authour captures her American view of Britain quite well, though a lot of her conclusions are skewed by her geographical location, and the social circles she moves in, some of the language nuances she picks up on could easily be more dialect issues than class as she asserts, but overall she entertains more than offends ( though baseball is still just a girls sport).
Covers everything from sport, politics, attitudes to children and animals, the animosity in the British newspaper industry, drunkeness and more.
It also gives some insight into the U.S. The outrage at page 3, the gushing at weddings, the bordom that is congress all feature ( footnotes are a wonderfull thing).
Even at the end though you get the feeling she hasn't quite grasped irony, the importance of the weather, and the differnce between British and English, or that Wales isn't a country.
Literally laugh out loud funny, although people unfamiliar with some of the people mentioned ( The sports and political figures for example) might find it less easy reading, less funny or even boring. Though the good bits should make up for that.