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Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour Kindle Edition
THE BESTSELLING MODERN CLASSIC. OVER HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLD.
'Brilliant and hilarious' GRAYSON PERRY
'A delightful read' SUNDAY TIMES
'Laugh out loud' MARTIN PARR
'Absolutely brilliant' JENNIFER SAUNDERS
'An entertaining, clever book' TELEGRAPH
WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY GRAYSON PERRY
The unofficial guidebook to the English national character by anthropologist Kate Fox.
From the class system to conversation etiquette, Kate Fox picks apart and exposes the bizarre codes of behaviour that the English unconsciously obey.
If you are English, this book will make you re-examine everything you take for granted. And if you aren't English, it will help you navigate the rules of this peculiar culture.
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From the Publisher




Product description
Review
If you like this kind of anthropology (and I do) there is a wealth of it to enjoy in this book. Her observations are acute... fortunately she doesn't write like an anthropologist but like an English woman - with amusement, not solemnity, able to laugh at herself as well as us. ― Daily Mail
She has not only compiled a comprehensive list of English qualities, she has examined them in depth and wondered how we came to acquire them. Her book is a delightful read. ― Sunday Times
It is consistently the most popular text I teach, not only because it's a hilarious page-turner but also because Fox offers truly insightful glimpses into what a sophisticated anthropological mindset can reveal about human cultural life . . . Watching the English embodies the anthropological credo of making the strange familiar and the familiar strange. -- Bianca Dahl, Professor of Anthropology, University of Toronto
Kate Fox's brilliant idea is to treat the British as another tribe...where she's particularly astute is in examining the exact pattern of clichés. Any study of the English must cover our class obsession, and Fox deals with the subject thoroughly. ― Harry Mount, author of How England Made the English
I read it cover to cover in a few days . . . very sharp and witty prose. It really is funny - the sort of humour that makes you laugh out loud on your own! -- Martin Parr ― Vice
She's a witty and eloquent writer whose accessible book reads as a scholarly classification of our shared codes of behaviour and an affectionate homage to our foibles. ― Metro
Brilliant and hilarious -- Grayson Perry
I loved the section on mobile-phone etiquette. Shrewd...I liked the chapter on English humour. This is an entertaining, clever book. Do read it and then pass it on. ― Telegraph
She is the only popular UK anthropologist of substance since the 1970s. -- Jeremy MacClancy, Professor of Anthropology, Oxford Brookes University
About the Author
Kate Fox, a social anthropologist, is Co-Director of the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford and a Fellow of the Institute for Cultural Research. She is also a bestselling author of popular social science.
Her work involves monitoring and assessing global sociocultural trends, and has included research, publications, lectures, consultancy work and broadcasts on many aspects of human behaviour, including: drinking, risk-taking, beauty and body image, flirting and courtship, crying, patriotism, pub behaviour and pub culture, horseracing, social class, mobile phones, the internet, online social media, menopausal women, cars and driving, gossip, taboos, violence and disorder, attitudes to work, coming of age in the 21st century, motherhood, shopping, individualism, the effects of health scares, the psychology of smell and the meaning of chips.
Her most recent book is the major popular bestseller Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour. This book has sold over half a million copies, and is translated into many languages including Chinese, Russian, Polish, Korean and Thai.
Kate's other books include The Racing Tribe: Watching the Horsewatchers and Drinking and Public Disorder (co-author with Dr Peter Marsh).
Kate is regularly invited to speak at the major literary festivals, as well as guest lectures and seminars at universities, institutes, embassies, trade and professional conferences, etc. in the UK and overseas. She gave the Christmas Lecture at the Royal Geographical Society, and won a debate against Boris Johnson for Intelligence Squared, among other high-profile engagements. She is frequently quoted in the Press and interviewed on radio and television. Kate has also been a regular columnist for Psychologies magazine.
Kate is married to the neurosurgeon Henry Marsh, CBE.
Product details
- ASIN : B00GIUGEO2
- Publisher : Hodder & Stoughton (24 April 2014)
- Language : English
- File size : 2.4 MB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 427 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: 13,730 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 9 in Anthropology (Kindle Store)
- 51 in Cultural Studies
- 66 in UK History
- Customer reviews:
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book a fascinating read that provides good insights and is written with dry humor. Moreover, the book receives positive feedback for its accurate portrayal of English people. However, the writing style is criticized for being rather repetitive, and while some find it accessible, others mention it uses difficult terms.
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Customers find the book thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating to read, describing it as clever and equally good.
"...written by a scientist of the highest standards who is also delightfully entertaining, very witty and full of self irony. "..." Read more
"...This book is simple social commentary, which is easy and enjoyable to read." Read more
"...Having said that, it is an enjoyable and light read...." Read more
"A great read this contains a lot of interesting observations regarding English behaviour...." Read more
Customers find the book informative and scholarly, providing good insights and fascinating facts about English behavior.
"...This book is simple social commentary, which is easy and enjoyable to read." Read more
"...If you are not, it is a useful guide to some otherwise puzzling behaviour found in natives of this Isle." Read more
"I enjoyed it at first, Fox's insights are remarkably accurate and she has obviously researched her subject(s) very well...." Read more
"...and light-hearted but is by no means light-weight for it has some serious messages which will interest anyone who is English or who has to deal with..." Read more
Customers find the book hilarious and entertainingly written, appreciating its dry humor and interesting views on English culture.
"...of the highest standards who is also delightfully entertaining, very witty and full of self irony. "Watching the English" is such a book...." Read more
"...The book is humorous because it looks at the many obvious characteristics of the English...." Read more
"...Worrying! It is a well observed and written with some dry humour, which I like...." Read more
"...Having said that, it is an enjoyable and light read...." Read more
Customers appreciate how the book provides an extremely accurate portrayal of English people, with one customer noting its great insight into Britishness.
"...The book is a must for all English people who are willing to look into themselves and try to find out why so many foreigners gaze in amazement at..." Read more
"A great read this contains a lot of interesting observations regarding English behaviour...." Read more
"A really good read and an extremely accurate portrayal of English people...." Read more
"...Yes, the English are socially inept; yes, the English value their privacy very highly and yes, the English love to grumble about the weather...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the book's readability, with some finding it accessible while others note that it uses many difficult terms and is not an easy read.
"...This book is simple social commentary, which is easy and enjoyable to read." Read more
"...Plus, it is not an easy read as it uses a lot of difficult terms." Read more
"...Fox explores what it means to 'be English' in an entertaining and accessible way...." Read more
"...emigrated or are living in the UK, this book will make it much easier to understand all the subtleties of the British culture.... I can see all the..." Read more
Customers find the book repetitive.
"...class system are extremely funny, precisely observed but become exhausting after a while...." Read more
"...However, my main problem is that it was just so boring and repetitive - maybe it could have been a good book, it it had only been about a quarter of..." Read more
"...A useful mirror in which to gaze, albeit a little dense and repetitive at times as the author reviews and summarises as she goes along...." Read more
"Some interesting points but the book contains far too much repetition...." Read more
Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 June 2011You don't very often come across a book [[ASIN:0340818867 Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour], written by a scientist of the highest standards who is also delightfully entertaining, very witty and full of self irony. "Watching the English" is such a book. It is not recommended for reading on a bus or a train as you very likely will become a damned nuisance to your fellow passengers, who will find it hard to put up with your thigh slapping and repeated outburst of unrestrained laughter every now and again.
The book is a must for all English people who are willing to look into themselves and try to find out why so many foreigners gaze in amazement at the strange things people do or say or, in particular, do not do or say in these fair isles.
Ms. Fox never criticises nor condemns, -rather whispers confidentially, "Yes, yes, I know why we all do this."
This book is a must on every bedside table in England and abroad.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 July 2004There's something in me which means that I'm marginally embarrassed to have bought this book. I removed the book's outer jacket so that people on the train wouldn't see what I was reading. Maybe I have the 'dis-ease' which the author refers to in the book -- so innately private, I didn't like the thought of other people seeing what I was reading.
The book is humorous because it looks at the many obvious characteristics of the English. Things like not speaking to people on the train because you're worried that striking up a conversation will lead to awkwardness later is quite natural, but it seems that this isn't something that afflicts other nations.
She refers to Jeremy Paxman's book 'The English' heavily throughout, which is sensible, as it is a much more comprehensive book.
This book is simple social commentary, which is easy and enjoyable to read.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2014This was recommended by a friend who lent me her paperback copy. Rather than keep it for too long I decided to buy it for my Kindle.
I've not finished reading it yet. It's the sort of book to read in installments dipping in for a chapter between reading something else.
However I must say that although I have never met the author, she seems to know a lot about me! Worrying!
It is a well observed and written with some dry humour, which I like.
If you are English you may be very familiar with and amused by the observations.
If you are not, it is a useful guide to some otherwise puzzling behaviour found in natives of this Isle.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2015I enjoyed it at first, Fox's insights are remarkably accurate and she has obviously researched her subject(s) very well. However, I found about halfway through the book the conclusion to each section, or chapter, was the same and it became quite repetitive. Yes, the English are socially inept; yes, the English value their privacy very highly and yes, the English love to grumble about the weather. I strongly suspect there is a little more to us than that, though.
Having said that, it is an enjoyable and light read. I suspect that it doesn't need (or wasn't meant) to be read front-to-back, but rather the reader can pick any chapter of the book that most interests them (such as pub culture) and start reading without any prior knowledge.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 January 2005Kate Fox is a well-known anthropologist who now turns her attention to the very strange behaviour of the English people. The book's chapters cover various aspects of this one by one, including mobile phone use, dress codes, food rules, rules of sex, driving and many other topics. Her basic conclusion is that the English are a buttoned-up race who use many displacements behaviours to cover up their essential embarassment in all social situations. Remove from us our dogs, our gardens, our pubs and our "weather talk" and you uncover a people who would run a mile rather than engage realistically with their fellow humans.
Kate Fox intersperses her study by telling the reader about the research she undertook and it is amusing to read of occasions when she deliberately bumped into many English people to see whether they would say "sorry" (the invariably did). Her visits to pubs result in some instantly recongisable behaviours which seem to have the force of law behind them for woe betide anyone who transgresses.
I enjoyed reading how humour suffuses all English social situations. It is impossible to interact with the English without making jokey, ironic comments, as anyone who works on a daily basis with English people will testify to.
The book is itself humorous and light-hearted but is by no means light-weight for it has some serious messages which will interest anyone who is English or who has to deal with the English in daily life. By the end I admired Kate Fox for providing us with what is really quite a scholarly study, but one which draws you on chapter by chapter, smiling at her insights as you read.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 July 2024A great read this contains a lot of interesting observations regarding English behaviour. I didn't agree with all of it and I felt that some claims about behavioural motives were over-generalised. I am a psychologist, the author is an anthropologist. Consequently she tries to explain 'everything' from social norms and rules. Some behaviour is idiosyncratic and some is happenstance. For example, she classifies choices of car according to class rules. Sometimes people's choices of car are entirely pragmatic - e.g. someone gave them a good deal.
Top reviews from other countries
- Jenn LindemanReviewed in Canada on 12 July 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Good book. Needed it for school.
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伊藤よしひろReviewed in Japan on 1 July 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars 必読! 目ウロコ本! と、おおげさに称賛するのはEnglishnessではない
Kindle版
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (April 24, 2014)
ASIN: B00GIUGEO2 のレビュー。
初版は2004年で大評判になり、加筆した2014年版。
文化人類学の調査方法で、著者自身が属する文化であるイングランド人を観察したもの。どこを読んでもおもしろいが、通読をおすすめします。この種の本は、同じようなことがらのくり返しになってしまい、平凡な結論になってしまう場合があり、それが学術書の価値でもあるが、本書は誰がよんでも大笑い、もしくは苦笑できる話題がいっぱいつまっている。最後まで楽しめました。
それと著者が何度も指摘しているように、日本人と共通することがらが多いので、日本人読者が読むとじぶんのことを書かれているような部分にでくわし、苦笑してしまうでしょう。ただし、どこか根本的な部分で日本人とイングランド人は大きく異なるようだが、それは本書のテーマではないので、その点は期待しないように。
いくつかの注意。
1. いわゆる英国礼賛本、インチキマナー本、デタラメ英会話品とはまったく異なる観察がたくさんある。これらを本気で信じている人に、いくら本書をすすめても無駄でしょう。ああいう本を書く人は、本書のような本を読まない人であろうから。
2. わたしの場合、この先イングランドで暮らす機会はないでしょうが、短期の旅行以外でイングランドに滞在しなければならない人。ここに書かれている階級の仕組をわかった上で、あんまり気にしないほうがいいでしょう。さいわい、アメリカ人という自己流にしか行動しない人々がいて、イングランドの人たちもそうした態度や言葉使いをわかっているでしょう。日本人もぎごちなく、時には周囲を困らせる場合もあることをわかったうえで、気軽に行動したほうがいいと思います。
3. 本書は時代、年代を超えて共通するEnglishnessを考察したものだが、やはりこまかい点では変わる部分が多いでしょう。携帯電話のマナーなど、すでに変わっていると思われる。キティちゃんのTシャツなんか本気で好きで着ている人もいるかも? ともかく、早めに読んだほうがいいでしょう。
kindle版は索引がついているが、ページへのリンクなし。
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cindyReviewed in Italy on 9 August 2021
3.0 out of 5 stars Lavoro approfondito
Mi aveva incuriosita l'indagine sui comportamenti della popolazione inglese, il libro si è rivelato molto approfondito e prolisso. Non sono riuscita a finirlo causa ripetuti colpi di sonno.
- annReviewed in Australia on 25 April 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written, clever and humorous
I was told about this book by someone who was reading it in translation. As I live in Australia, many things described by the author apply. I'm enjoying her humorous observations and I think she understands the subject very well.
A great read for lovers of sociology, language and anthropology.
- John RaileanuReviewed in the United States on 4 May 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
An excellent insight into what English is. I was particularly impressed by the word 'dis-ease'. So apt !! An eye opener of things we must have somehow intuited but not clearly understood.