How to be a Brit, George Mikes
How to be a Brit, George Mikes
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How to be a Brit
The hilarious bestselling guide to British culture, customs and the British Way of Life

Author: George Mikes

Narrator: Richard Goulding

Unabridged: 4 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 03/08/2021

Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin.George Mikes's perceptive manual for everyone who longs to attain True Britishness provides a complete guide to the British Way of Life. Having been born in Hungary, he eventually spent more than forty years in the field, and the fruits of his labour include insights on important topics including the weather, how to be rude and how to panic quietly. Loved by readers and authors alike, How to Be a Brit contains Mikes's three major works - How to be an Alien, How to be Inimitable and How to be Decadent. If you're British, you'll love it; if you're a foreigner, you'll appreciate it.

- How to plan a town: "Street names should be painted clearly and distinctly on large boards. Then hide these boards carefully."
- Queuing: "An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one."
- Sex: "Continental people have sex lives: the English have hot water bottles."© George Mikes 1986 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ivonne on July 13, 2017

Five stars for How to Be an Alien, which is early George Mikes. But, after decades in London, late George Mikes got a bit cranky, devolving to two stars for the stuff he wrote in the 1980s when he was starting to sound a bit like White Van Man.......more

Goodreads review by Mark on July 10, 2011

"An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one." This quote says all there is to say about this book. I say... this book is quite enjoyable.......more

Goodreads review by Mark on July 03, 2017

I read the book more years ago than I like to admit, in my undergrad days while living in Perugia and attending the Italian University for Foreign Students. It was actually a gift from one of my professors, a British don of decidedly 'old school' sensibilities. When he handed me Mikes' little book D......more

Goodreads review by Tosh on March 19, 2018

I'm attracted to the Penguin classic design book and when I saw "How To Be a Brit" at the Last Bookstore in Downtown Los Angeles, it brought back memories of me going to used bookstores in London and finding old Penguin paperbacks from the 1940s. That it has illustrations going through the entire bo......more

Quotes

In all the miseries which plague mankind, there is hardly anything better than such radiant humour as is given to you. Everyone must laugh with you - even those who are hit with your little arrows. Albert Einstein to George Mikes

An instant classic

Very funny The Economist

Bill Bryson is George Mikes' love-child

This is the vital textbook for Brits, would-be Brits, and anyone who wonders what being a Brit really means. Pass me my hot water bottle, please

Wise and witty Spectator

Brilliantly comical New York Times

Mikes is a master of the laconic yet slippery put-down: "The trouble with tea is that originally it was quite a good drink"

I love it and read it cover to cover. Also has good tips for talking about the weather, not that we need them

Full of the very best advice that any would-be Brit should need (and for those of us who have forgotten exactly how it is to be ourselves) it's a jolly good read The Telegraph

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