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How to be a Brit

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

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How to be a Brit

By: George Mikes
Narrated by: Richard Goulding
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About this listen

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

 Emigration & Immigration Europe Great Britain Social Sciences England Imperialism

Critic Reviews

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.
An instant classic (Francis Wheen on 'How to Be an Alien')
Very funny
Bill Bryson is George Mikes' love-child (Jeremy Paxman)
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)
Wise and witty (William Cook on 'How to Be an Alien')
Brilliantly comical (Pico Iyer on 'How to Be an Alien')
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)
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)
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
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