Watching the English

The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour

By: Kate Fox

Narrated by: Joan Walker

The international bestseller and unofficial guidebook to the English national character by anthropologist Kate Fox.

Have you ever been unable to explain the idiosyncrasies of English humour, bizarre mobile-phone etiquette, or the endless obsession with class? In this classic bestselling book, social anthropologist Kate Fox puts a nation under a microscope. The result is a biting, affectionate, insightful and often hilarious look at the English in all our glory.

Based on extensive field-research, experiments and observations, Fox deciphers a strange and fascinating culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and bizarre codes of behaviour. She uncovers the roots of English self-mockery and demystifies peculiar cultural features such as 'weather-speak', class anxiety tests, the paranoid pantomime rule and the apology reflex. If you're English, this book will help you understand yourself and your fellow countrymen in a new way. And if you aren't English, you'll finally understand why we talk about the weather so much.

A worldwide bestseller, translated into multiple languages, and a set text for university anthropology courses, Watching the English is a timeless classic on the quirks, habits and foibles of the English people.

©2004 Kate Fox (P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

What an enjoyable book. Like crocodile Dundee but with depth and knowledge!

She is an anthropologist and great story teller. And how all the research was done makes it so realistic and easy to remember. Thank you. Please keep writing about cultures.