George Mikes The author of the book is George Mikes. He was born in Hungary, but the greatest part of his life he lived in England. The author, as an immigrant, demonstrated his knowledge in English language and in English society.Why are English people so different from other Europeans? This book tries to explain the strange things that the English do and say.
The book consists of two parts. The name of the first part is "The most important rules”. This part tells us about important English topics such as: weather, tea, about soul, how not to be clever, how to compromise. The most interesting chapters in this part are about the weather and tea culture. The weather is the most important topic in conversation with the British. In Europe if you talk about the weather everybody says that you so boring. But in England "the weather is always an interesting, exciting subject and you must be good at talking about it.”
The name of the second part is "Less important rules and some special examples”. This part describes the Bloomsbury intellectual, how to be a film maker, about driving cars and bus drivers, and the author finishes this part with how to be a truly citizen.
The author describes England of the early 20th century: it’s prim, insincere and gloomy country. He describes all sides of life of the country - this is public and secular life, this is about politics, humor, love, characters.
The main characters in this book are British people and their lifestyle. Maybe we sometimes can’t understand them, but a lot of strange things for us are usual for Britons.
The book is sometimes written tartly, sometimes biased, but with a good sense of humor. I think this story was successful in that time. In other words, the Hungarian humor was appreciated by the British. True Britons were so sure in themselves that they weren’t offended and reacted with the sense of humor to this book.
I liked this story. I don't know whether all that is written is true or not but I want to recommend the book. I think that while reading readers will learn how to talk about the weather, and what to say when somebody brings you a cup of tea at 5 o’clock in the morning. This book will help foreigners to be like English people. But as the writer said: «A foreigner is always a foreigner. He can become British, perhaps; he can never become truly English».
This book can be read smoothly. From the first to the last line you want to smile.
