Watching the English - Kate Fox

Kate Fox, the social anthropologist who put the quirks and hidden conditions of the English under a microscope, is back with more biting insights about the nature of Englishness. This updated and revised edition ofWatching the Englishfeatures a new foreword and fresh chapters on the unwritten rules and foibles of "squaddies," bikers, horse-riders, and more. Fox revisits a strange and fascinating culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and bizarre codes of behavior. She demystifies the peculiar cultural rules that baffle us: the rules of weather-speak, the ironic-gnome rule, the reflex apology rule, the paranoid-pantomime rule, class anxiety tests, the money-talk taboo, and many more. An international bestseller,Watching the Englishis both an incisive and hilarious look at the English and their society.

Kate Foxis co-director of the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford. Her work involves monitoring and assessing global sociocultural trends, and has included research, publications, and broadcasts on many aspects of human behavior.