How to be a Brit
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  • Published: 24 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241990827
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $18.99
Categories:

How to be a Brit

The hilariously accurate, witty and indispensable manual for everyone longing to attain True Britishness

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Sep 1986
Audiobook
24 Sep 2020
Paperback
4 Jan 2016
Paperback
24 Apr 1986
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The timeless and laugh-out-loud bestseller on the quirks of being British

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."
  • Published: 24 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241990827
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $18.99
Categories:

Also by George Mikes

English Humour For Beginners
How to be an Alien
See all

Praise for How to be a Brit

Brilliantly comical

Pico Iyer on 'How to Be an Alien', New York Times

I used to think that Mikes's world has gone, but it has returned to us in spades via the referendum.

Nick Fraser, The Guardian

How to be an Alien inspired me ... Some of his observations remain remarkably fresh and relevant 70 years later, but it's his tone that impressed me

Erin Moore, author of That's Not English

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

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

Rachel Johnson

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

Henry Hitchings

Brilliantly comical

Pico Iyer on 'How to Be an Alien', New York Times

Wise and witty

William Cook on 'How to Be an Alien', Spectator

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

Dame Esther Rantzen

Bill Bryson is George Mikes' love-child

Jeremy Paxman

Very funny

The Economist

An instant classic

Francis Wheen on 'How to Be an Alien'

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
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