Books : Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour

Rating: - absolutely wonderful
I bought this book for my Father. But I am going to have to buy another copy for him as there is no way I'm going to give this away. So many things that we take for granted, I now realise are actually our upbringing.

For example Buying a drink in a pub ..what we take for granted ..is actually a very complicated series of behaviours.

This book is a revelation. ..and very funny

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Rating: - Bet you don't finish it either!
This book belongs to my 'never reached the halfway mark' collection. It's far too long and contains far too much inane detail, some of which is funny, but never in a laugh out loud way. Kate Fox can write and her observations are clever but there's just no pace whatsoever to the book - it goes nowhere. Unless you suffer from constipation and therefore spend a good hour a day on the porcelain throne you really needn't bother wading through this, there are too many better books out there.

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Rating: - It could have been much better
Kate Fox study of the English is essentially a collection of cliches about the English. Cliches about the English by the English, so its a collection of "national traits" and characteristics based on how the English like to think that they are viewed by foreigners - there is plenty of talk about queuing, weather, stiff upper lip and all that. That said, the book is entertaining and well written and at times, very funny

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Rating: - "It's funny 'cause it's true"
I thoroughly enjoyed "Watching the English" and finished it in just under two days. It is written in a witty, accessible style and is full of acute observations and self-deprecating humour. Some chapters made me cringe, some laugh out loud, but mostly both at the same time! My favourites have to include our treatment of would-be queue-jumpers, and analysis of our bogside literature preferences. A lot of the research is dedicated to class stereotypes. Some say that they do not apply any more, but I have to disagree, if you scratch beneath the surface they still very much do, and whether I liked it or not, I found myself agreeing with a lot of what the author says. Sure enough, this book won't tell you anything you don't already know (if you're English or have lived here for some time, that is), but it's extremely entertaining to have our knowledge of some of the most everyday things that we do instinctively thoroughly analysed, confirmed and explained! Highly recommended for an amusing light read that is actually quite insightful and thought-provoking. (And if you don't enjoy it, the chances are that it may be too accurate!)

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Rating: - Interesting and sometimes humorous but essentially shallow study of the English.
Kate Fox states that she wants to get under the surface of the stereotypical English person and approaches the task by breaking down our national attributes into "rules". There are rules for pretty much everything; however the sample sizes she uses for examples and `proving' the rules seem quite small and she chooses her subjects by class, age and gender according to what will show her theories to be correct. The book examines each rule in turn building a picture of the English. Some of these rules can seem contradictory and you feel that she never really gets to the root of the behaviours used to validate them - in essence is this an academic text of the English deserving of anthropologic study, a light-hearted look at ourselves for the English or an overly long in-flight read for foreign visitors?

If you're English you will recognise many aspects of yourself in this book, if you're not you still may, but you will also discover something of our love for pubs, discussing the weather, queuing as well as our class system amongst other apparently peculiarly English characteristics. Either way, however complex we might like to think we are, the book would benefit from being considerably shorter.