Fox - Watching the English: the hidden rules of English behaviour

An entertaining, clever book. Read it.Daily Telegraph

What is Englishness? That is the question that social anthropologist Kate Fox set out to answer in her book Watching The English, which became an international bestseller. Now, ten years on, she has dug even deeper into our national foibles and eccentricities to update her study. The result is gloriously entertainingand painfully accurate!Daily Mail

Inside I found all of my own observations that I had made about my fellow English folk but articulated with very sharp and witty prose.Vice

Watching the English... will make you laugh out loud (Oh God. I do that!) and cringe simultaneously (Oh God. I do that as well.). This is a hilarious book which just shows us for what we are... beautifully-observed. It is a wonderful read for both the English and those who look at us and wonder why we do what we do. Now theyll know.

Birmingham Post

Fascinating reading.

Oxford Times

The book captivates at the first page. Its fun. Its also embarrassing. Yes... yes, the reader will constantly exclaim. Im always doing that.

Manchester Evening News

Theres a qualitative difference in the results, the telling detail that adds real weight. Fox brings enough wit and insight to her portrayal of the tribe to raise many a smile of recognition. She has a talent for observation, bringing a sharp and humorous eye and ear to everyday conventions, from the choreography of the English queue to the curious etiquette of weather talk.

The Tablet

Its a fascinating and insightful book, but what really sets it apart is the informal style aimed squarely at the intelligent layman.

City Life, Manchester

Fascinating... Every aspect of English conversation and behaviour is put under the microscope. Watching the English is a thorough study which is interesting and amusing.

Western Daily Press

Enjoyable good fun, with underlying seriousness a book to dip into at random and relish for its many acute observations.

Leicester Mercury

Also by Kate Fox

The Racing Tribe: Watching the Horsewatchers

Drinking and Public Disorder

(with Dr Peter Marsh)

This edition first published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing in the United States of America in 2014.

20 Park Plaza, Suite 610

Boston, MA 02116, USA

Tel: + 617-523-3801

Fax: + 617-523-3708

3-5 Spafield Street, Clerkenwell

London, EC1R 4QB, UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7239 0360

Fax: +44 (0)20 7239 0370

www.nicholasbrealey.com

2014, 2008 by Kate Fox

Published in Great Britain in 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton

A division of Hodder Headlin

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

20 19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

E-ISBN: 978-1-85788-616-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fox, Kate.

Watching the English : the hidden rules of English behaviour / by Kate Fox. -- Revised and updated.

pages cm

Published in Great Britain in 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton, a division of Hodder Headline.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. National characteristics, English. 2. England--Social life and customs--21st century. I. Title.

DA566.4.F67 2014

390.0941--dc23

2014010674

To Henry, William, Sarah and Katharine

CONTENTS

S ince Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour was first published in the UK, I have had many letters and emails from Americans both visitors and immigrants about how the book has helped them understand and interact with the English.

Somewhat to my surprise, and slight anxiety, it seems that many Americans in the UK are using the book as a kind of how to be English manual, never venturing out to a pub, an English home, or a business meeting without consulting the relevant chapters for instruction on what to expect and how to behave. Some even go so far as to carry my book with them at all times and one couple told me they now refer to it simply as The Book (you know, like the Bible) as in: What does The Book say we should do in this situation? or No honey, dont you remember The Book says English people will cringe with embarrassment if you say that!

Ive also had quite a few letters from Americans married to English people, telling me that the book has proved invaluable in helping them understand the quirks and foibles of their English partners. Often, these poor souls had been under the impression for many years that their partners bizarre behaviour and strange beliefs were personal peculiarities, or even symptoms of mental illness, until my book revealed that they were just being English. Several correspondents claim that Watching the English has saved their marriages.

Perhaps the most unlikely and amusing example of this was the young American anthropology student who came up to me after a lecture I gave at Oxford University and said, without preamble, I am so grateful to you! Your book totally saved my relationship! Gosh, I said, a bit taken aback by such an intimate disclosure. Really? Er, how? I mean, which bit of the book did you find helpful? The section on class differences in pea-eating, she replied.

I thought she must be joking, but she was entirely serious. She had been terrified of meeting her English boyfriends upper-middle-class parents, knowing that they were very snobbish and would look down on her as a crass, uncouth, low-class American. So when they invited her to dinner, she diligently studied and committed to memory the chapter on food rules, including the section on pea-eating, in which I explain that the upper-/upper-middle-class method of eating peas involves squashing the peas onto the convex back of your fork with your knife. This is of course a most perverse and impractical way of eating peas, but the obvious alternative turning the fork prongs-up and scooping up the peas, as any sane person would do is regarded as common and frowned upon by the higher social echelons.

Fortunately for my new fan, peas were served at the dreaded dinner, and she duly ate them in the ludicrous upper-class English manner. The snobby mother could hardly contain her delight. Look, dear! she nudged her husband and whispered, Look how shes eating her peas shes one of us! From that moment on, the parents initial frosty wariness miraculously thawed, and their sons girlfriend was welcomed into the family.