I much preferred the first edition, this second edition is huge and feels harder to get through. Just read the conclusion chapter & use it as a reference book. ( )

Excellent, I loved this. Can't say I've read anything like it before, but interesting content explained in a really nice, humorous way - which I guess shouldn't be surprising :-) ( )

A fantastic book! It was humorous and extremely interesting at the same time. There's so much detail, but I didn't feel as if it ever became tedious to read. Kate Fox does a wonderful job of keeping the the book light while being informative about the English. A perfect combination! ( )

English people are weird. English people write books about how they are weird. Weird ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2962509.html

Fox wittily dissects the behaviour of the English in 400 pages of anthropology, concluding that it all comes down to social dis-ease, with reflexes of humour, moderation, and hypocrisy, an outlook based on empiricism, Eeyorishness and class-consciousness, and values including fair play, courtesy and modesty. She enlarges on her concept of social dis-ease:

"It is our lack of ease, discomfort and incompetence in the field (minefield) of social interaction; our embarrassment, insularity, awkwardness, perverse obliqueness, emotional constipation, fear of intimacy and general inability to engage in a normal and straightforward fashion with other human beings."

Since the author herself is English, the book falls firmly into the acceptable discourse of being self-deprecatingly funny. The most enjoyable chapters are perhaps those on pets and hobbies - I now begin to understand DIY. She is even self-deprecating about her own discipline: "social science can sometimes almost be as insightful as good stand-up comedy."

Of course, I am not English myself, but I am not unfamiliar with them (having married one), and as a close observer for several decades, I think Fox has nailed a number of characteristic behaviours beautifully. ( )