***STOP PRESS*** This bookring has been split into 3!
This is Ring 1. If you can't see your name here, you're either in Ring 2 or Ring 3.
Any problems please PM me.

Welcome to my Bookring: Watching the English - Kate Fox
Member / Location (Ring posted 12 June 2005)
Ring 1
1. mrswren / UK
2. MrsDanvers / UK
3. Pookledo is being skipped and catching up again at the end of the list!
4. AnglersRest / UK
5. Teachie / UK
6. ScottishHoosier / Scotland
7. Tazzell / Scotland
9. Iagegu / UK <-- Book is here

Book is lost :-( Will be moving the people below to this ring

tutleymutley / UK
xanapeq / UK
Pookledo / UK
Rillaith / UK
loopy1 / UK
Icila / France
Back to me / Switzerland

Small Print
:-) If you wish to be added to the list, please PM me with your details.
:-) You must be prepared to mail internationally.
:-) PM the next person on the list for their address, then send the book.
:-) It's not a race, but please read and send the book on as soon as you can.
:-) Please journal the book once you have received it (so we all know where it is) and again when you have read it (so we know what you thought of it!)
:-) If you're the last person on the list, the book comes back to me.

Kate Fox (an anthropologist) spent time watching and studying "the english" and this book explains her theory on our sometimes bizarre behaviour whilst offering some helpful rules! The book is well written, accessible to the layperson and very funny.

Read it if you want to know the answer to such diverse questions as:
Why do the British love queuing?
What topics can be discussed in a british pub?
What are the rules for getting a round in?
Why do we talk about the weather?
Why do we go for drinks after work?
Why do we get drunk at the Christmas party and photocopy bits of our anatomy?

I can't recommend this book highly enough! All English people should read it to understand our group behaviour. Anyone who comes into any sort of contact with English people should also read it, if only to understand our little pecadillos! It's similar to (but funnier than) Beyond Chocolate which does a similar job of explaining the Swiss! Read it and you'll never watch the english in the same away again!

More info on Kate Fox

This is nice-cup-of-tea's book, but she bought it from Tesco.com and they couldn't deliver abroad, so she had it delivered here. I've therefore booknapped it, but after reading I will send it on its bookring journey!

Enjoyed preface but too high powered for me! Will be posting to Mrsdanvers this week.

Received from MrsWren. Just getting into it.

I found this rather disappointing, for the style , not the content.Kate Fox could do with a good editor becasue this is too much like reading a college paper on the various topics, particularly the summary of "rules" at the end of each chapter.

Nevertheless, the book is full of litle snippets you will take away with you. I find I remember bits when in conversation with friends and colleagues e.g the chapter on Rites of Passage is full of amusing bits about the class differences in weddings and the approach the English take to religion. I also enjoyed "Linguistic Class Codes" and "Dress Codes".

Overall, a book to dip into rather than read in one blast, which is why it has taken me so long to read it. I shall take away with me the conclusion that so much of how the English communicate is by a system of hidden or discrete signals and codes which are baffling to other races.

Received in the post this morning. Why do all bookring books turn up at once?

RELEASE NOTES:

Posted this morning to Anglersrest as I'm having a bookring crisis.

Arrived this morning. I have a couple of rings in front and will get to this ASAP.

A fascinating book that, like MrsDanvers, I dipped into the book.
Is there a book that trys to explain Italians? Being half Italian I would find that interesting. I was asked recently, if I thought with the English or Italian bit of my brain!

Thanks so much for sharing. I have PM'ed Teachie and as soon as I have the address the book will be in the post.

Received Teachie's addy, in the post in the next few days.
Enjoy!

This arrived today, thanks AnglersRest. I will journal when I have read it. I have just started another book so this will probably not get passed on until after Christmas.

Thanks so much for sharing this book. I found all the little foibles fascinating. After reading different sections I found myself looking closely at the way people reacted to situations and the things they said. I would agree, it is a book best dipped into.
This is now on its way to ScottishHoosier.

Came bright and early with the post this morning, but I'd already turned the computer off to take my son to school. Just now after Asda, collecting my son, feeding everyone lunch, putting daughter to bed for her nap, watching Neighbours and baking cupcakes with my son, gotten around to journaling it! Thanks for sending it on, teachie. Special thanks for the bookmark! Nice, spring colors to cheer one up on a blustery January day.

I'm halfway through a Penguin Pocket 70, but they are so very brief, that I'll be able to get on to this one nearly straightaway. Be interesting to see if it can help me decifer my English husband better!

Thanks for sharing, n-c-o-t!

Finally!! I have finished reading it!! It was very interesting and I like her sense of humor, but I had a hard time making it through the 400+ pages. I found out I've been making a big mistake with the counter-compliment: as a good Midwestern American girl, I've been graciously accepting all the compliments my mil has been giving me, when I should have been decrying them and complimenting her back! I shall have to endeavor to do better. I especially found interesting the differences in word usage for the various classes, indeed all the class indicators were interesting.

I already have Tazzell's address, so this will be off into the mail after I drop my son off at nursery school.

Thank you again, nice-cup-of-tea!

Arrived today thanks. Halfway through another bookring book so this will be started asap and I look forward to seeing if the 'English' in this book refers to those who live in England or it's a collective English as in all the nations of Britain - am I being picky?

A fascinating book (I was going to say little book there but decided against it as it's not little at all) spent much time chuckling and nodding my head at behaviour which is so recognisable.
I was much pleased to see Ms Fox explain that is book was indeed focusing on the English as a group who live in England and not on the collective English that many other cultures seem to think means everyone in the whole of Britain. I'm only so fussy being a Celt myself ;)
Thanks for starting this ring nice-cup-of-tea (a nice english pastime if ever I heard one)
Have pm'd Loopy1 twice so far with no results so will endeavour to get this book off again. :)
Have pm'd Loopy1 and done an ISO but no luck so I tried Iagegu but they have no private message thingy so I'm going to try the next bod on the list, hope that's ok.
12th April - Still having no luck getting hold of anyone to get this book moving again but I'm still trying.
19th April - Finally am able to pass this book on. Thanks for all your help nice-cup-of-tea ;) I need a nice cup of tea now.

received today. Thanks

RELEASE NOTES:

Hope this arrives safely.

Posted 26/6/06

Thank you to everyone on this ring for reading and reviewing "Watching the English" - I have really enjoyed reading all your entries. Unfortunately the book seems to be lost :-( I have removed the remaining participants to this ring