The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British

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Editorial Reviews:

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

Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A spot on view of British culture August 21, 2008
13 out of 17 found this review helpful

As an ardent Anglophile, I had to have this book. In many ways Sarah covers the same territory as Bill Bryson with the same bemused American perspective. Each chapter covers a different aspect of British culture and combines personal anecdotes with wider factual information. The book is extensively footnoted along with a lengthy section of suggested further reading.
If so far this leaves you yawning, let me also say that this was one of my most enjoyable reads of the year. I read it while on vacation and my family frequently commented "you really like that book" as I giggled my way through.
To give you a flavor of the book, here is a quote from the chapter entitled Lawmakers from Another Planet.
"If sometimes the debate had the tenor of a late-night conversation in a college dormitory during that precious window of time after the pot has been smoked but before the pizza has arrived-well,that was the Lords' perogative."
Thank you Sarah for such a fresh take on such a well worn topic.

5 out of 5 stars

An American in England August 23, 2008
13 out of 19 found this review helpful

Ms. Lyall has rewritten her columns of observations on all thing British and recycle them into this witty and fun book. The author moved across the Atlantic for her marriage and her readjustment to a new culture is the subject of this book. Easily read in an evening, "The Anglo Files" is like Garrison Keillor writing about Minnesota -- full of warmth and acceptance for those who are a little bit different from Americans.

5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant, interesting, funny September 5, 2008
12 out of 14 found this review helpful

Very well written indeed. I expected this to be Britain 101 (which it is) but it digs deeper and is more nuanced than that -- somewhere in the 300's or 400's course levels on what we used to call the Mother Country. Very well-written too, though the author could start including the footnoted material into her text so it would read more smoothly. Comprehensive and detailed without being plodding or ponderous. (I have dual citizenship with one English and one American parent, spent a lot of time in the UK growing up and have lived and worked there). Nice prose style; very enjoyable read. If you like it, you should also buy Stand Before Your God which is a bit darker and more personal but equally fascinating. Buy and read Ms. Lyall's book.

2 out of 5 stars

The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British September 15, 2008
11 out of 23 found this review helpful

I was disppointed in this book. I expected to read an insightful review of the British culture. Instead, the author presented the British as a brutish, and juvenile people with few if any postive traits. I can't understand why she is living in England if she dislikes the culture so much. It was an airing of pent up grievances.

5 out of 5 stars

Spot on! September 5, 2008
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

For anyone who has ever spent an appreciable amount of time in England, as I have, Sarah Lyall's new book, "The Anglo Files" is as close to a perfect look as "one" (Br.) can get from an American perspective. An expatriate for more than a dozen years, Lyall has learned to cope and allowed herself to be educated, all the while shaking her head at how the British live their lives. It's the stuff of a good book.

Each chapter in "The Anglo Files" presents a different topic to be reviewed. Whether it be English men (and their alcohol consumption) cricket, cuisine, the weather or just plain British eccentricity, Lyall covers it all with a sharp wit of observation. My favorite few pages involve her description of the House of Lords. It's hysterical, giving rise to the New Yorker magazine's occasional squib, "There will always be an England".

While much of the book is a gentle poke at British culture and language, the author gets into the psyche of her host country and is dutifully repectful of the way the British "rally 'round"...whether it be in war, or more recently, the death of Princess Diana. Saving this bit until near the end, Lyall reaches a poignant moment and it's one of her best in the book. I highly recommend "The Anglo Files". The narrative is crisp, funny, and I must say, accurate!

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