Book description
Unlike the Government's Citizenship Test, this is the real measure of Britishness.
Written in a snappy A-Z format with quiz questions throughout to test
your Britishness, Iain Aitch explores all things British in a funny,
evocative way. Whether it's fish and chips, James Bond, red telephone
boxes or white dog poo, everything you've ever regarded as being
uniquely British is within these pages and guaranteed to bring a smile
of recognition to even the stiffest of upper lips.
Test your knowledge of Britain and what it means to be British by
answering a multiple choice question for each entry and then read on to
discover the 'correct' answer.
With more style than Jarvis Cocker's moves and more pomp than Elgar's
masterpiece, Iain Aitch celebrates all that is truly glorious about good
old Blighty. A book for the entire British population - Northerner,
Southerner, and even tourist and immigrant alike - this is the perfect
read for someone looking for the truly British experience.
Aitch gives us the real Britain, not one filtered through the eyes of
civil servants or politicians. This is the dictionary of the Britain
that you affectionately know and love. From asbos to garden gnomes,
Tennent's Super to tube maps, to socks and sandals and spam and Smash
potato, this is the most definitive list yet created that encapsulates
the sights, sounds and even smells that make Britain what it is today.
Iain Aitch is a London-based writer who has written for The Observer,
The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times,
The London Evening Standard, Salon, The Idler and Bizarre. He is also
London editor of San Francisco's Dwell magazine. Iain's articles for The
Guardian were chosen as the best of the year in 2005 and 2006 by readers
of the newspaper. He writes about a mixture of arts, travel and
eccentricity, regularly looking at slices of British life. Always
brimming with ideas, he is the inventor of World Phone in Sick Day and
also initiated the annual London Santacon: a gathering of Santas intent
on festive mayhem. Both of these events have been the subject of
documentaries by Channel 4 and BBC Radio 4 respectively.
