The big book of national insults - Julian L'Estrange

If your idea of international relations is summed up more by 'bugger the Belgians' and 'a pox on the Poles' than 'I'd like to teach the world to sing', then The Big Book of National Insults is almost certainly the book for you. Culled from the murkiest and most biliously xenophobic depths of the (un)diplomatic bag, it presents over 1200 stinging examples of international ill will, odium and animosity.Take your seat at this table of Disunited Nations - and eat your fill of the bouillabaisse of bile, the dhansak of detestation, the lasagna of loathing, the paella of prejudice and the smorgasbord of spite. Whether it is the Russians reviling the Finns, the Dutch dissing the Turks or the British bashing just about everyone - and most spectacularly themselves - this is a place where absolutely everybody else is the one with the problem.'We are the dirty armpit of Europe.'Ken Livingstone, quoted in The Independent, 18 March 1989'Marry a German and you'll see that the women have hairy tongues.'Ruthenian saying