The English: A Field Guide - Softcover

Rudd, Matt

3.32

214 ratings by Goodreads

9780007490479: The English: A Field Guide

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000749047X ISBN 13: 9780007490479

Publisher: William Collins, 2014

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A hilarious field guide to the world’s most remarkable and unusual creatures: the English.

Thanks to television documentaries by Bruce Parry and David Attenborough, we are better acquainted with the hunting rituals of the San bushmen and the mating habits of Papua New Guinean tribes than we are with the everyday lives of that most peculiar of species – the English.

In ‘The English: A Field Guide’, Sunday Times journalist Matt Rudd, sets out to uncover what makes us, the English, tick. He will examine us in our natural habitats, starting with the living room and moving out to the kitchen, the garden, the commuter train, the office, the motorway, the high street, the sports stadium, the pub, club, bingo hall, balti house, beach and ending up in the bedroom.

Hilarious, warm-hearted and surprisingly enlightening, ‘The English’ shines a strong searchlight on us all.

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Review:

‘An opportunity for the English to laugh at themselves. And to show everyone else how mad and brilliant we are’ Jeremy Clarkson

‘It’s perfect for dipping in and out of on, say, your commute to work, as each chapter is pretty self-contained. But be prepared to laugh out loud. And start nodding and thinking: “yep, I SO know that person,” every few seconds ... Clever and witty, but oh-so true, you’ll love this fab look at our nation’ Sun

‘Highly entertaining ... ample opportunity for Rudd to display his flair for comic writing...in his hands, and contrary to received wisdom, sarcasm is one of the higher forms of wit ... a warm and witty celebration of England and the English ... proof that comedy is one of the things that the English are very good at indeed’ Sunday Times

‘Matt Rudd makes the voyage around England with the eye of a more frivolous, lighter weight George Orwell ... It's quirky, irreverent, ironic, allusive, boyish, self-mocking, shrewd and funny. Foreigners, bless them, don't write like this' Country Life

‘Which are we: dukes in top hats, or Pearly Kings? ... Good for Matt Rudd, who establishes that we’re neither ... he sprinkles the book with revealing nuggets ... [readers] will find more home truths, and fewer clich�s, about the English than they will in most Anglo-hunting books’ Mail on Sunday

‘Rudd is sharp, larky, a bit laddish now and then, like a stand-up comic strutting his stuff ... it’s all deftly sketched ... the book is at heart a celebration of everydayness’ Times

‘Rudd’s cruelly brilliant observations skewer our friends and neighbours (though obviously not ourselves) with such accuracy that it’s hard not to think he actually watches and listens to our daily lives. Darkly funny’ Daily Mail

About the Author:

Matt Rudd is senior writer at the Sunday Times. In the name of journalism, he has worn a short skirt in public, had a tour of a �300,000 lettuce shredder and stood outside Pippa Middleton’s book launch for six hours in the freezing cold. In the name of this book, he has spent the last two years on the road with binoculars, a notebook and many Red Bulls. He lives in Kent with his family. Follow him @mattrudd.

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