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The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British | 
 enlarge | Author: Sarah Lyall
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.48
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 418
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0393058468
Dewey Decimal Number: 941.086
EAN: 9780393058468
ASIN: 0393058468
Publication Date: August 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20081010212127T
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Product Description
Dispatches from the new Britain: a slyly funny and compulsively readable portrait of a nation finally refurbished for the twenty-first century.
Sarah Lyall, a reporter for the New York Times, moved to London in the mid-1990s and soon became known for her amusing and incisive dispatches on her adopted country. As she came to terms with its eccentric inhabitants (the English husband who never turned on the lights, the legislators who behaved like drunken frat boys, the hedgehog lovers, the people who extracted their own teeth), she found that she had a ringside seat at a singular transitional era in British life. The roller-coaster decade of Tony Blair's New Labor government was an increasingly materialistic time when old-world symbols of aristocratic privilege and stiff-upper-lip sensibility collided with modern consumerism, overwrought emotion, and a new (but still unsuccessful) effort to make the trains run on time. Appearing a half-century after Nancy Mitford's classic Noblesse Oblige, Lyall's book is a brilliantly witty account of twenty-first-century Britain that will be recognized as a contemporary classic.
"The Anglo Files should be handed out, as a public service, in the immigration line at Heathrow." -Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink
"When Sarah Lyall married an Englishman and moved to London ten years ago, few around her realized she was a modern-day Tocqueville—otherwise they would have been much more guarded. The happy result is The Anglo Files, a razor-sharp, hilarious, wickedly insightful, decidedly biased account of Everything British."— Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair
"Superb social and cultural anthropology by a reporter who has lived among her subjects without losing her sense of wonder for them. Imagine Margaret Mead channeling Jon Stewart and you have Sarah Lyall."—Eric Lax, author of Conversations with Woody Allen
"Sarah Lyall brings all the virtues of the best American journalism, including accuracy, to the task of analysing all the vices of British society, including hypocrisy, venality and hopeless confusion about sex. She will now be hailed as one of England's supreme analysts, preparatory to her being executed on Tower Green."—Clive James, author of Cultural Amnesia
"For years now Sarah Lyall has been the wittiest observer of the English and their curious habits. Now she's written a book that takes her game to an entirely new level. It's funny, it's delightful and anyone with even a passing interest in these strange people should read it." -Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball
"By turns wry, mordant, affectionate, bitter and sweet. I never miss any of her dispatches because, while they manage to remind me why I left, they also contrive to make me feel occasionally homesick." -Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 A Fond But Caustic (And Hilarious) Look At The British October 4, 2008
Sarah Lyall is an American journalist married to a British journalist. The Anglo Files is part memoir, part traveler's advisory, part hate mail, and part love affair. If that seems like a lot to pack into a 263 page book not including index, it would be in the hands of a less gifted writer. Lyall's gift for sardonic observation and wry commentary is ably displayed here.
There are 14 chapters with snicker inducing titles like "Honorable Members" and "Invasion of the Hedgehog People", each examining a different foible easily encountered in present day Great Britain. Sometimes Lyall discusses subjects, like British class structure, that have been endlessly dissected by other writers, but her observations are still fresh and enjoyable. At other times Lyall tackles British traits which are less familiar to most Americans, such as the appalling lack of dental care and hygiene. While these chapters have a tendency to discomfit the reader (I stopped halfway through the chapter on teeth to floss thoroughly), they are nevertheless highly amusing. I suppose my favorite chapter has to be "More Than A Game", about cricket, because it recalled a bewildering afternoon I once spent at Lord's, accompanied by a British friend who did his best to explain what was going on, to no avail. And in light of current economic events Lyall's examination of the recent British boom, driven by inflated housing prices and disreputable lending practices, have a fresh clarity and significance.
I've been a rabid Anglophile (some say Anglomane) for many years, and while some of the material about drinking and chavs and yobs made me wince, I'll treasure The Anglo Files because because beneath the caustic commentary and wry comparisons Lyall's deep appreciation for that still green and pleasant land (in between rain showers)shines through.
 You must be joking! October 2, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I fail to see how any one can compare this book to anything written by Garrison Keillor - he of the real talent to enthrall his readers with wit and gentle fun-making! Not only are there factual errors but it is completely devoid of real humor. I picked up the book expecting a little bit of mud-slinging but did not expect a continual, nauseating barrage of snide uppity comments. I'm surprised the author still wants to live in the UK. I understand this is her first book on the subject. One can only hope it is her last.
Great item/great service October 2, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I not only enjoyed the book but was totally surprised by the level of professionalism from the dealer.
 A Yank On Brits September 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book illustrates well the principle that love and hate are close relations. I have lived in Scotland and visited other parts of the UK over many years. Ms. Lyall has written successfully, and with a fine sense of humor,about the country's institutions, peculiarities, and frustrations. She is critical, to be sure, but she is rarely far from the mark.
I laughed aloud many times as I savored her lines and remembered my and my children's experiences while living there. I had some small bones to pick (typos, redundancies)but I suspect these will only be troublesome to editors and other writers who read the book for pleasure. And a pleasure it is.
Funny! September 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Fascinating look at British life, and British "oddness," and quite often very funny. Two of my friends and I were camping and, at night, we read sections of this book aloud to one another. Not your usual camping activity, I grant you, but we're all in our sixties. We laughed ourselves silly (not that drinking a good merlot while reading had anything to do with it). The author, Sarah Lyall, is an excellent writer; she knows how to turn a phrase to get you laughing. If you don't know much about the British, read this book. You'll learn a lot and have plenty of good laughs as you go.
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