The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British

As an American married to an English man, I found myself laughing out loud repeatedly while reading this book and seeing a lot of myself in the author's view points. Case in point: when I first moved to England I was horrified to note that no one rinsed their dishes after washing them. As the author noted, for the British rinsing the soap off is "optional". I think anyone wishing to learn more about the cultural differences of the UK and US will enjoy this book, but those of us who have experienced living in the UK first-hand will probably appreciate it a bit more. A really fun book.

An enjoyable book about the differences between America and Britain. A lot of the book is about everyday habits, such as dental hygiene, favorite sports and alcohol. I also leared a little about the class system, the Houses of Parliament from this book. While the author tries to write about her topics with a subdued hilarity, I don't quite think that she is going to replace Bill Bryson as the English icon.

I enjoyed this book through and thorough. Very informative, witty, insightful, and well-written. The chapter on CLASSES had me laughing outloud more than once. Highly recommended!

Well researched as well as full of firsthand experiences.

Organized into chapters dealing with topics:
- attitudes towards sexuality
- members of the Houses of Parliament - way of setting laws
- newspapers
- alcoholic consumption
- cricket
- language differences between upper and lower classes
- House of Lords - changes to what it was and now is
- self-deprecation
- eccentricity and tolerance towards
- hedgehogs
- bad teeth
- expansion of products and consumerism since WWII
- stiff upper lip
- using weather as both an ice breaker and a barrier to intimacy

The above are general because the chapters touch on larger observations.

What is not covered is the effect of the influx of multiple former Empire cultures such as Indians and Jamaicans except to the extent it has expanded the British diet/restaurants.

Good ending chapter on further reading.

I read the Kindle version. Active table of contents and the hyperlinks between footnotes and back to the chapter are flawless.

I picked up this book when my husband was in the ICU of our local hospital, and I hoped that it would provide a momentary diversion from a ghastly situation. In fact, from the first chapter I found myself muffling my guffaws so that the nurses didn't think I was some kind of loon. I even got impatient when my husband wanted to talk. He was distracting me from my glorious distraction!

In creating this wonderful testimony to British quirkiness Sarah Lyall has expanded upon the old adage that the U.K. and the U.S. are "two countries divided by a common language" to include the different ways in which the British view politics, culture and even sex. The chapter on how differently the British parliamentary system functions from our congressional one is both insightful and charming. The one on British men's hang-ups on sex is, well, eye-opening. And although I have a couple of minor complaints with this book (for example, the chapter on cricket is as tedious as the sport itself)I give Lyall high marks for not falling victim to the temptation to write yet another sappy book of Anglophilia.

Most of us who have lived in England as expatriates or had extensive stays there as tourists instantly recognize that we are in a foreign country. (All you have to do to reach this conclusion is read the letters to the editor of the Times of London.) But Ms. Lyall's experience, in that she has been a working journalist and the wife of a British writer, goes beyond what most of us experience. As such, it is a richer and deeper exposure to British culture and her approach, full of humor and a strong sense of irony, has produced a magical book. Cheers!